Sunbirds – Sunbirds

Sunbirds

Sunbirds – Sunbirds BASF 2021110-2 (1971)

Overlooked debut album from the German jazz fusion outfit Sunbirds.  They take on the kind of early 1970s fusion pursued by Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, and — maybe the closest comparison — Donald Byrd.  Nothing strikingly original here, but this is really well played stuff with a laid-back, almost psychedelic vibe.  It can rub shoulders with all the better fusion recordings of the era.

Slavoj Žižek – Lessons From the “Airpocalypse”

Link to an article by Slavoj Žižek:

“Lessons From the ‘Airpocalypse’”

 

Notes: The phrase “spaceship Earth” was coined by R. Buckminster Fuller.  Žižek seems to clarify Fuller’s suggestion, “If the success or failure of this planet, and of human beings, depended on how I am and what I do, how would I be? What would I do?”  Žižek repeats his general position that people should not cynically obtain surplus enjoyment for doing what is good, but should instead be duty-bound to do good.

Anthony Braxton – Six Compositions (Quartet) 1984

Six Compositions (Quartet) 1984

Anthony Braxton – Six Compositions (Quartet) 1984 Black Saint BSR 0086 (1985)

Here is one of Anthony Braxton’s most accessible albums of the 1980s — at least, one of his most accessible albums from that era featuring all original compositions.  The opener “Composition No. 114 (+ 108A)” is a misstep, but the boppish nature of much of the rest of the disc is sure to please many.  This is one of the better places to start with Braxton’s 80s output.

Sam Mitrani & Chad Pearson – A Short History of Liberal Myths and Anti-Labor Politics

Link to an article by Sam Mitrani & Chad Pearson:

“A Short History of Liberal Myths and Anti-Labor Politics”

This article does an excellent job summarizing why Upton Sinclair called Republicans and Democrats “two wings of the same bird of prey” and why Malcolm X said, “The difference between the Republican and the Democrats is that the Republicans stick the knife in your back six inches, and the Democrats pull it out one.”  However, there are a few points to quibble about.  For instance, there is evidence to suggest Mayor Harrison in Chicago supported the Haymarket Martyrs — though this is tangential if not irrelevant to the overall article.  More importantly, there is room to criticize some economic assumptions underlying the article.  Take the claim “2. Let the banks collapse, which would have led to an even worse economic crisis than the one we experienced,” which seems dubious.  Lehman Bros. collapsed.  The government could have wound down the other big banks too — with the “even worse economic crisis” confined largely to the financial parasites and leaving ordinary commercial banks and credit unions intact, an overall positive result.  That claim is followed-up by the (false) implication that there is a fixed money supply: “less and less money went into public services, schools, infrastructure, etc. because it had all been given to the already obscenely wealthy.”  Modern Monetary Theory demonstrates how fiat money can be created by the government if there is a will to do so — the issue is lack of political will, not, as implied, a lack of actual dollars.  After all, the TARP bailout money was created out of thin air!  This economic history actually indicates that the government could also create money for socially beneficial programs, but chooses not to.  These economic correctives actually reinforce the authors’ points, just in a slightly different way.

 

Bonus link: “We Need an Alternative to Trump’s Nationalism. It Isn’t the Status Quo”

Buffy Sainte-Marie – I’m Gonna Be a Country Girl Again

I'm Gonna Be a Country Girl Again

Buffy Sainte-Marie – I’m Gonna Be a Country Girl Again Vanguard VSD-79280 (1968)

Lots of musicians “went country” in the late 1960s — think about country-rock outfits like Rising Sons and Bob Dylan going to record in Nashville.  Buffy Sainte-Marie was at the front end of that curve with her 1968 album I’m Gonna Be a Country Girl Again (released shortly before Sweetheart of the Rodeo and Joan Baez‘s incursions into country). While other artists sometimes created hybrid music, Sainte-Marie for the most part made an authentic Nashville album, complete with A-list Nashville session players (Grady Martin, The Jordanaires, Floyd Cramer, etc.).  This compares favorably to any late 1960s Loretta Lynn album, for example.  Sainte-Marie tried all sorts of different things on her late 1960s and early 70s albums.  She was remarkably versatile, and willing to venture outside folk music.  Other other hand, while side one of the album is great, side two suffers from having a few songs (“Tall Trees in Georgia” and a re-recording of “Now That the Buffalo’s Gone”) that return to the folk sounds of her early career.  Sticking with the Nashville sound throughout would have been more effective.  Still, that is a small issue on an otherwise great album — the folk songs are fine, just out of place.  For what it’s worth, it is kind of great that Sainte-Marie’s foray into country music is immune to criticisms of cultural appropriation.  Would anyone really accuse a musician with native Cree heritage of that?

The album was a flop.  There are numerous explanations.  But among the more unusual ones was that President Lyndon Johnson sent letters to radio stations on White House stationary to convince them to blacklist her in response to her anti-war song “Universal Soldier” becoming a hit (for Donovan).  Despite its lack of success at the time, this is an album worthy of reappraisal.  For that matter, Buffy Sainte-Marie’s entire career deserves more attention.