After stumbling across this 1993 promo video of Frank Zappa’s “Willie the Pimp” featuring Jimmy Carl Black and The Muffin Men (live with studio footage), I found the following Podcast on The Muffin Men homepage. The band reminisces about Jimmy’s last tour (gigs he had to cancel due to increasing ill health), his friends attempts to help (including old friend Arthur Brown), and the benefit gigs. The podcast also includes an extended live version of Jimmy Carl Black’s “Great White Buffalo”.

Click here to listen to horn and guitar solos from “Great White Buffalo” recorded in Aschaffenburg entitled, “Aschbuff”.

Marianne Faithfull is an English singer, songwriter and actress whose career spans over four decades. Her early work in pop and rock music in the 1960s was overshadowed by her struggle with drug abuse and heroin addiction in the 1970s. After a long commercial absence, she returned late in 1979 with the landmark album, Broken English.

In the 1999 BBC Four program “Close Up” (first clip of five, above) Faithfull’s tumultuous life is examined in full detail — how she has become both the incredible iconoclast who has inspired such contemporary female artists as PJ Harvey, Amanda Palmer (The Dresden Dolls), and Tori Amos (to name just a few), as well as the survivor in what has always been a male dominated industry.

Parts 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 (Duration: 50 minutes)

In the following 2009 BBC Four Sessions Interview, Marianne Faithfull talks about the making her new album, Easy Come, Easy Go (click here to listen to interview).

From her album’s premier performance, Faithfull performs Live with the London Symphony Orchestra at St. Luke’s, London, on February 18, 2009:

“Children Of Stone” and “Sing Me Back Home” from Easy Come, Easy Go. “Crazy Love” from Before The Poison.

Partly a collection of covers of Faithfull’s favorite songs, and partly a collection of duets — indeed, such notables as Cat Power, Nick Cave, Rufus Wainwright, Keith Richards, Sean Lennon, as well as Kate and Anna McGarrigle appear on the album — Easy Come, Easy Go is probably Marianne Faithfull’s best work since Broken English.

My favourite tracks on this 2CD album (there are 18 of them – 10 on the first disc, 8 on the second) are:

“Ooh Baby Baby”, with Antony Hegarty (originally by Smokey Robinson):

“Black Coffee” (originally by Sarah Vaughan):

Recorded on April 18th, 1996, Juha Rompannen interviews Arthur Barrow in Los Angeles, California.

Arthur Barrow played bass guitar (and occasionally keyboards and guitar) in Frank Zappa’s touring and recording band between 1978 and 1980. In this ten part interview, Barrow talks about his music education, influences, time with Frank, his youth in Texas and later in California, and his work and experiences both in and out of Zappa’s band.

Part 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

Note: Thanks to “YourArf” for posting these interviews.

In August 2008 U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel of San Jose, California ruled that copyright holders cannot order a deletion of an online file without determining whether that posting reflected “fair use” of the copyrighted material. The case involved Stephanie Lenz, a writer and editor from Gallitzin, Pennsylvania, who made a home video of her 13-month-old son dancing to Prince’s song Let’s Go Crazy and posted the 29-second video on YouTube. Four months later, Universal Music, the owner of the copyright to the song, ordered YouTube to remove the video enforcing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Lenz notified YouTube immediately that her video was within the scope of fair use, and demanded that it be restored. YouTube complied after six weeks, not two weeks as required by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Lenz then sued Universal Music in California for her legal costs, claiming the music company had acted in bad faith by ordering removal of a video that represented fair-use of the song. Warner Music Group has followed suit, ignoring fair-use and deleting any video with music that they have rights over—no matter how big or small the audio clip is.

from Wikipedia entry on Fair Use.

Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favour of fair use. There are variations from country to country, but in almost every case I have researched, allowances are made for “fair use” of copyrighted material. However, in practice, this hasn’t been the case whatsoever. Each time I post something from YouTube, I get this sensation that I’m pointing a big finger at somebody.

Since I’ve been posting at KUR I have noted a drastic increase in the draconian behavior of almost all copyright holders, especially the large corporate holders such as the ones mentioned earlier. As noted, they do not have a legal leg to stand on, but this doesn’t stop them from bullying YouTube to remove posts which are obviously “fair use”. Fighting these companies, is like punching an eclair (messy and pointless for most of us without the financial ability to sustain it). It’s my thought that besides that, we must stick together, and keep a eye on where our entertainment dollar is going. The way they take our money is a crying shame. It makes no difference if you are young or old. Common sense is our only hope. Snork, if you will, but they will get you if you are not looking. If it’s not one thing, it’s another. Learn to hate it every minute.

In this battle for fair use, who is scrutinizing the scrutinizer, the legion of corporate lawyers who spend their expensive hours hunting down fair use offenders until it hurts when they pee? Of course, it’s the aim of these corporations to “mess your mind up” and make us all “tow-the-line” while turning us all into little “cyborgs” with our smart phones “sticking out” of the sides of our heads.

Of course, they’ll just say they’re “doing work” for their client, “keeping it” in such a way as to insure their client’s legacy in the digital age. As usual, the robots at Rolling Stone couldn’t care less as long as these same corporations buy plenty of ad space

So, practice fair use, if you can, but best be sure not to offend the copyright holder and their high-priced lawyers because even the law being on your side is of no help as they “walk completely amok” over your rights. You are not alone. Sure, the radio may be broken, but your iPhone is working just fine.

Excuse me, but my own “kerosene” iPod is out of juice. I should go outside now and refill it before I have to cut the grass.

Watermelon anyone?

The Frank Zappa Memorial Pancake Breakfast, also known as Finnish Zappa Tribute band (featuring Napoleon Murphy Brock and Denny Walley) perform “Montana” at Zappanale 19 in Bad Doberan, Germany, on August 17th, 2008 before an enthusiastic and appreciative audience.

This little Finnish band that could has an amazing winding story, from their initial formation to how they were eventually booked for the 2008 Zappanale.

Antti Kivimäki, bassist for Finnish Zappa Tribute:

The Finnish Zappa Tribute band was founded by drummer Joni Leino. Joni, Antti Kivimäki on the bass, Mikko Enqvist on the guitar, Mikael Kakko on keyboards were school mates at the Sibelius High School and we were playing fusion jazz type music during that time (1999-2001). In 2002 Joni was asked by a bar keeper in Nurmijärvi to assemble a project that would play something different from the mainstream, so he had the idea of putting together a big Frank Zappa tribute band with marimba and horns. He asked us and we all loved the music of Zappa, so we joined with him and started recruiting musicians for the band. Singer Antti Koivula, sax player Petteri Hietamäki, trumpetist Janne Toivonen, trombone player Heikki Tuhkanen were all studying at the same music school. I knew the marimba player Olli Kari from the band Uzva. They were all to be asked first and they were enthusiastic about the idea, so we started working in the fall of 2002. Me, Mikko and Joni selected, transcribed and arranged most of the songs and started rehearsing them and soon we had two sets of material.

We have had only with two gigs, both in the spring of 2003. First one was at Nurmijärvi in a bar called Duetto, the second one was Arabia Hall at Helsinki. Both concerts were recorded under the name of Finnish Zappa Tribute.

In the summer of 2006 I was playing bass in the band Uzva and we were coming to play in Germany, so I decided to take some DVDs of our Zappa performance and hand them out to promoters etc. I handed out one for Charly, a promoter for Burg-Herzberg festival, who liked our material and recommended us to Wolfhard Kutz (Arf president at the time). Mr. Kutz contacted me later and expressed his interest of wanting to see the DVD. I sent him one and I guess he liked what he saw and booked us for Zappanale 2008. 

The three clips below are a few from that DVD that Antti Kivimäki brought along to Germany. They show Finnish Zappa Tribute band performing “Zoot Allures”, “Lumpy Gravy & Oh No”, and “Inca Roads” at Arabia Hall at Helsinki on March 25th, 2004.

While researching this post, I learned that Stanley Jason Zappa also performed with Finnish Zappa Tribute band, towards the end of their performance at Zappanale 19 on the Finnish Tango, “Satumaa” (if anyone has audio or video footage of this, I’d love to hear/see it).

Both Napoleon Murphy Brock and Denny Walley will be performing on Zappanale 20’s Main Stage (with The Grande Mothers Re: Invented and Mats & Morgan, respectively).

Note: Tip of the hat to Robert for the correct title to that Finnish Tango.

Both Sharl and I are avid Rufus fans — his music (or dresscode for that matter) may not be your cup of tea though.

More clips at Roger Bourland’s weblog.

Boz Scaggs‘ voice was a very big part in the soundtrack of the seventies, so it’s really not a big surprise that this artist’s music still resonates with me (myself, having come of age in the mid-seventies). For me, Scaggs was then, and still is now, the epitome of smooth blues (like aged dark rum in a shot glass, straight back). If you look past his well known hits like “Lido Shuffle”, “Lowdown”, “Look What You’ve Done To Me”, you quickly realize that Scaggs is one in a long line of great American bluesman (which, perhaps, answers why his music is still popular today while so many of his 70s contemporaries have long since faded away).

On this June 30th, 1971, recorded performance, Boz Scaggs and his band perform the first of a five-night run commemorating the closing of the Fillmore West in San Francisco. The set consists of songs from his early solo albums ‘Boz Scaggs‘ (1969), much of the best material from ‘Moments‘ (1971) and ‘Boz Scaggs and Band‘ (1971). The highlight of the set, though, has to be the near 18-minute take on Fenton Robinson’s “Loan Me a Dime” from Scaggs debut album (the track was later remixed, completely altering the original feeling). The set ends with guests Elvin Bishop and Taj Mahal joining the group onstage for a loose jam session.

Boz Scaggs and Band:

Boz Scaggs – guitar, lead vocals

Rita Coolidge – vocals, percussion

Doug Simril – guitar, piano, vocals

Joachim Jymm Young – keyboards

David Brown – bass

Mel Martin – saxophones, flute

Pat O’Hara – trombone

Tom Poole – trumpet, flugelhorn

George Rains – drums

Elvin Bishop – guitar, vocals

Taj Mahal – harmonica, vocals

Click here to listen to the concert at Wolfgang’s Vault.

As an extra bonus, I’ve included the following tracks from Scaggs most recent releases:

King of El Paso (from ‘Dig’, 2001)

I Just Go (from ‘Greatest Hits: Live’, 2004)

Ballad of the Sad Young Men (from ‘Speak Low’, 2008)

More violinesque YouTubery, courtesy of Paul Dateh. More of his music can be downloaded here.

A recent post made me think of another great innovator of free jazz, as well as third stream music: Eric Dolphy.

Dolphy was an American jazz alto saxophonist, flautist, and bass clarinetist. He was one of several groundbreaking jazz alto players to rise to prominence in the 1960s. He was also the first important bass clarinet soloist in jazz, and among the earliest significant flute soloists. In the years after his death, his music was often described as being “too out to be in and too in to be out.” Among his contemporaries and admirers were Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Oliver Nelson, Herbie Hancock, and a young Frank Zappa would later compose the piece, “The Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbecue” for the Mothers of Invention album, Weasels Ripped My Flesh, in Dolphy’s honor.

“Too out to be in and too in to be out” is also perfect description of Third Stream music – a genre of music located about halfway between jazz and classical music. Improvisation — a key element of jazz, but far less common in classical music — is a vital component of Third Stream. Thus Third Stream can be realized in its “truest” sense when musicians, especially players of traditionally “non-jazz” instruments such as strings, horn, or double reed, learn basic jazz improvisation and style, thus opening up the possibilities of improvisation throughout the ensemble.

In the clip above and the two below, the Eric Dolphy Quintet perform “GW” (alto sax), “God Bless the Child” (bass clarinet), and “245″ (alto sax), respectively from a television broadcast by the German station SWF (Südwestrundfunk) which aired as part #24 of a TV series called “Jazz gehört und gesehen” (Jazz Seen and Heard) at Deutschlandhalle in Berlin, Germany on August 30, 1961.

Eric Dolphy Quintet:

Eric Dolphy – bass clarinet, alto sax
Benny Bailey – trumpet
Pepsi Auer – piano
Jamil Nasser, aka George Joyner – bass
Buster Smith – drum