Gladys Afamado

I discovered this urugayan artist in Montevido last winter. I never heard of her work before and didn't find that much about Gladys Afamado on the net. That's a shame...Check it out:

And Tori Amos to illustrate in music this post, her last LP just came out few days ago but I'm too busy to put on ear on it. Let's listen this track "dark side on the sun" from the album "american doll posse" released in 2007.

Tori Amos - Dark side of the sun-

Doctor L - It's Bad, so bad

Back in 97, I 've worked in a record shop and I discovered the debut solo carrer of this talented french producer who originally did beats on the first Assassin album.

The combination of samples sounds terrific on this track, this Ep from my private collec' comes with a clear vynil.

Enjoy!

Doctor L - It's bad, so bad

Stolen moments

I went to Ahmad Jamal's quartet gig yesterday night... great show, great pianist, one of my "still alive" favorite.

Back home I couldn't help to share with you this classic tune from his acoustic piano period . This track is called "stolen moments" and came on the awakening album released 1970. It features Jamil Nasser on bass and Frank Gant on drums. It's originally written by Oliver Nelson and also appears on the album of Blues and the abstract Truth which is more orchestred than Jamal's trio. Both were signed on Impulse records

Ahmad Jamal - Stolen Moments

Blues and the abstract truth - Stolen Moments


So what's your favorite?.........

Atomic - prayer

Hi folks, been busy these last two weeks...

I brought to you a killer track from a scandinavian modern jazz band called Atomic...don't miss it fellaz...

Back in 2002, I've worked for this jazz Festival in Scotland. I remember to have in my hands this promo EP from a band that became in my opinion, one of the most exciting and creative group of the modern jazz scene.

Five musicians from Norway and Sweden doing their thing and doing it really great. Influences? Probably Coltrane and Don Cherry, the Free Jazz and the Blue note grooves of the 60's. Structure and rhythm lead by super double bassist Ingebrigt Flaten, Paul Nilssen-Love on drums and Havard Wiik on piano, remains as a solid foundation for free improvisation or expression for the Stockholm Front line of trumpeter Magnus Bro and saxophonist Fredrik Ljungkvist.

The track "prayer" appears in this promo Ep and was written by Ingebrigt Flaten who's now doing his solo career. I still look forward to seeing Atomic back on the europeean scenes. Check their website here

Atomic - Prayer

Books #2

Few books I just reviewed:

Blind man with a pistol - Chester Himes, 1969. 10/20
Chester Himes's two star detectives Ed Cercueil and John Fossoyeur (french names) got themselves in a "very hard to follow" story this time. The author's clunky prose still portray every negative aspect of the Harlem community in the late 60's: mindless, crime, vice, etc. The good point of this book is that Himes managed to capture and described well this chaos: a weird riot between three factions in which two cops are trapped. But as I said, the lack of central storyline makes it difficult to read because you 've got the feeling that pieces of this novel are slapped together. Usually in a Chester Himes story, politic and the situation of the black community are better linked. Definetely not his best novel so far...

Triksta - Nik Cohn, 2005. 12/20
Nik Cohn draws a rough portray of the New Orleans rap scene. evene if he made up most of the story, this book is still interesting to read. It deals with this white journalist (himself) who progressed from a writer, writing a magazine article about bounce music, to a New Orleans rap producer including his work with Junie.B for the release of the first 12' of Choppa. Yhe interesting thing is that this book has been written between the collapse of Mo'Money Records (owned by Master P) and the big succes of Lil Wayne.Recommended for the NO rap scene fans!

Train ride- Peter Loughran, 1967. 14/20
Train ride is the story of an absurd wanabee philosopher who's "headaching" and "hangovering" in a train.During the whole trip, he accuses with vehemence society, religion and the established order. This anarchist docker easily plays martyr as soon as he happens to commit an abomination. Irritated the entire ride by few nuns and a little girl who's the definition of brat. This narrator is a sick and disconcerting character who makes this book spreading its perversity to a point of disgust.
Reading this book all the way through, we pardoned this pathetic hero with our brief sympathy and indulgence. Great book in a "nihilst" style.

The Black Dahlia - James Ellroy, 1987.15/20
The body of a girl that was brutaly tortured was found severed in half. Two cops (who are ex-boxing opponents) Lee Blanchard and Bucky Bleichert are assigned to the case... James Ellroy took real events from history and intertwines them with his own writting. The Black Dahlia obviously focuses on the murder of Elizabeth Short, one of the most unsolved enquiry in LA. The book starts with a nice descrition of a boxing match between bucky and Lee, these two characters are very well described along the story and I really like them. They're complex, faulted and their obsession in solving this crime and tracking down the murderer gets higher and higher.

Music to illustate this post:
The french moog player Jean Jacques Perrey released this track in 1970 on the obscure jazz funk label Vanguard. I've got this tune from the LP compilation of 96 called "The vanguard experience - I like it" on the label BGP.
This compilation includes various jazz/funk artists from the Vanguard records and especially this one which has been sampled by Primo on "just to get a rep". If you didn't know it, it's time too:

Jean Jacques Perrey (vanguard times)

Jean Jacques Perrey - E.V.A