Sun-Ra – Holiday for Soul Dance

Holiday for Soul Dance

Sun-Ra and His Astro Infinity Arkestra – Holiday for Soul Dance El Saturn ESR 508 (1970)

A set recorded in 1960 mostly consisting of standards plus one song (“Dorothy’s Dance”) written by Phil Cohran.  This is traditional jazz, something along the lines of Bad and Beautiful, Some Blues But Not the Kind Thats Blue and Standards.  “Early Autumn” has vocals by Ricky Murray that recall the mannered, almost swallowed vocals of Kenny Hagood on Miles Davis‘s “Darn That Dream” with the Birth of the Cool band.  Yet, these are not throwaways from the vault, but rather pleasant readings suitable for playing in company that would bolt for the door with most outer-space Ra stuff.  In fact, this might be the all-around best of Ra’s standards albums — though Some Blues But Not the Kind Thats Blue with its great John Gilmore solos is a very close runner-up.

Scott Walker – Stretch

Stretch

Scott Walker – Stretch CBS 65725 (1973)

Scott Walker’s mid-1970s period was marked by a shift from adventurous re-imaginings of traditional pop to rather unchallenging exercises in country pop music (Glen Campbell is probably the closest comparison).  Stretch is an example of the latter, though the country elements are only just beginning to show.  Now, Scott’s voice was arguably in the best form it has ever been.  The problem is that stylistically he is playing by someone else’s rules, and his studio band often drifts into bland, clichéd territory.  Side two holds some particular interest, with the last clutch of songs managing to make an impression with Randy Newman‘s “Someone Who Cared” and “I’ll Be Home” and Jimmy Webb‘s “Where Does Brown Begin.”  The most effective moments come from songs a little more spare and intimate than Scott’s early solo efforts.  Not a bad album at all but still a little disappointing compared to what he has achieved elsewhere.  Yet Scott’s voice is so effective that this remains rather endearing.

Why? – Oaklandazulasylum

Oaklandazulasylum

Why? – Oaklandazulasylum Anticon abR0029 (2003)

If you thought, based on his collaborative works with Anticon labelmates, that he was a hip-hop artist, then Why?’s indie rock debut may be a surprise. To be entirely accurate, oaklandazulasylum never settles into one style. Why? invites all sorts of influences into the mix. The songs dart from one structure to another. The music is always refreshingly goofy. But too often oaklandazulasylum sounds more like tinkering than anything significant.  Perhaps the album is most successful when hip-hop influences are prominent.  And that takes Why? back to square one.

Andrew W.K. – 55 Cadillac

55 Cadillac

Andrew W.K. – 55 Cadillac Ecstatic Peace! E#8b (2009)

Finding precedent in John Cale‘s The Academy in Peril, Andrew W.K.’s 55 Cadillac is a (mostly) solo piano outing.  It’s anchored in pop classical, with touches of modern classical and third-stream jazz.  He’s not a pianist with the powers of Cecil Taylor, by any stretch.  He does use some of the same devices Cale used decades ago, inserting sound effects and brief little interludes.  This is a lot better than it deserves to be, and it’s actually about time that somebody took experimental 20th century music and tried to pull it together and make it more accessible.  This isn’t a complete success, at least it’s not something to rush out and find, but after my wife listened to I Get Wet multiple times in a row and at first wanted to turn this off, she could tolerate it after it got going, which never happens with Cecil Taylor or anything of that sort.

Badiou, Kouvelakis and Lancelin – Dangerous Days Ahead

Link to a transcript of a discussion about the future of Greece and the Syriza party between Alain Badiou, Stathis Kouvelakis and Aude Lancelin:

“Dangerous Days Ahead”

Bonus links: “The Straitjacket of Austerity Tightens on Syriza” and “The Next Hundred Days” and “Greece’s Yanis Varoufakis: The Medicine of Austerity Is Not Working, We Need a New Treatment“