Herbie Hancock: Watermellon Man

I love, love, love how Herbie Hancock tells the story of how he composed Watermellon Man. Link to Woodie Herman’s hard bop version of 1962 Link to Mongo Santamaria’s hit of the same year Link to Herbie Hancock and the Headhunters’ funky version from the 70s The intro to that version played on a bottle, […]

Kishi Bashi

Wow. Kishi Bashi. I hadn’t seen the ads, instead discovering him through Paste Magazine. All that attention to detail, craftsmanship and polish. Animal Collective meets Andrew Bird and classical Japanese music. They are hosting a video-based riddle contest for idioms like wearing _ _ _ _ h _ _ _ _  _ _  your  _ […]

Geh aus, mein Herz, und suche Freud

We sang my mother-in-law’s favorite song at her funeral: Geh aus, mein Herz, und suche Freud, with a text by Paul Gerhardt (1656) and music by August Harder (1813). Her heaven is full of birds and flowers. Who needs angels when you have nightingales? RIP dear Heidi. Geh aus, mein Herz, und suche Freud 1. […]

Chuck Brown in Funk Heaven

He’s up there now, the creator of gogo, making them dance up in heaven. Bustin’ Loose was the best thing on the dancefloor when I was 17. But man, did his sound age well. This sound is home. So DC. “You can’t leave cause your heart is there. It’s a family affair.” So now he […]

Shearwater: Golden Archipelago

Jonathan Meiburg of Shearwater started out as a natural scientist and has reworked his travels into a very interesting concept album (and media package) on remote islands. He says he first thought he should become a scientist. “But I kept noticing that the questions that most interested me are things you can’t really investigate with […]

Question: Inspired by a fault?

http://annehodgson.de/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/fault.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadDjango Reinhardt was born 100 years ago yesterday. He lost the use of the third and fourth finger on his left hand when the family caravan caught fire, and as a result developed his own unique style of guitar playing. Seriously inspirational, that is. Can you remember any other […]

Björk: Unravel

This quiet week there’s hardly anyone spending time online visiting this blog, so I’m just going to post some stuff connected to my choice of album of the decade (drumroll:) Björk’s Vespertine. While you are away My heart comes undone Slowly unravels In a ball of yarn The devil collects it With a grin Our […]