| October 28, 2007 | | | | | Feedback | | | Recipe Calendar | | | Archives |
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Here's a great old video of three giants playing together at Storyville in 1986. Thanks to Mike Mouton for the link. A two disc tribute album to Fats Domino came out recently with versions of his stuff by everyone in the world and with great collaborations by New Orleans musicians. For a slightly different set of listeners, another recent New Orleans collaboration album is Galactic's From The Corner To The Block. Let's all say it together: Hip-Hop is folk music.
The piece "Second & Dryades" with Chief Monk Boudreaux is a good lead in for traditional listeners. From there it's easy to move on to "No Way" or to the title cut. The rapper rhythms, often harsh and boring, are tempered here by setting them in the groove of an excellent funk band. Not every cut works, but on a few songs, the hip-hop lyrics are more sophisticated and poetic. There is something for the Not Fully Recovered English Majors of the World here. I can trace my own route to some appreciation of hip-hop song by song, from songs with talk in them like Bruce Cockburn's When You Give It Away and Robbie Robertson's Blue Train to Black Eye Peas: Where is the Love; Michael Franti; Ozomatli: Magnolia Soul; the One Giant Leap album; the Billie Holiday remixes. Maybe I've hauled a few of you along with me. Anyhoo, here's the November Mix.
The gadget report. Motorola HT820 Bluetooth headphones and a Jabra A120s adapter that plugs into anything. Very nice for the office where my small 5000 Lux happy light promises to make me half as happy as the 10,000 Lux model. Remember, you can take pills for seasonal gloom, but if you buy gadgets instead, when the light comes back you still have all this cool stuff. Next year I'd like to go to Louisiana for All Saints Day and take photos of the grave lighting in Lacombe. I went looking online for pictures and this is all I could find. We lived in Lacombe for 13 years. The candlelight under the oak tree canopy is magical. |