You probably all have a basic understanding go what happened in Munich in 1938, Robert Harris has written a fictional book that fills in all the details. Who was involved and all the trivial details re. Who said what to who, the decor and furniture at 10 Downing St plus similar for what was happening in Berlin. It culminates of course with the actual encounter in Munich of Chamberlin and Hitler. Fictional history but of a high order. I’m currently reading ‘Munich’ by Robt Harris,I chose this because I recently read ‘A Gentleman and a Spy’, also by Harris, it’s the story of the Dreyfuss affair. Both recommended to all who enjoy historical novels.
We now look forward to a Democrat controlled Congress, it should be more interesting than the last 2 years.
Let me include a non-musical note here that might be useful for spillers. For several weeks I’ve been trying to create a couple of posts for the ‘Top 10’ theme, whenever I tried to upload and insert tunes I got a message ‘For security reasons this format isn’t allowed’, in every case the cuts were mp3’s or m4a’s, both on the acceptable list. I finally gave up.
But at the WordPress site I noticed an item, there was a weekly meeting close to where I live sponsored by WordPress, it was for the benefit of users with problems or new users. The feature is called WordPress Wednesdays- see if it’s listed for your area.
When I showed my WordPress attempts to the guy in charge he noticed that I had omitted the dot from .mp3! That’s all it took to be rejected for ‘security’ reasons.
This happened because I copied and pasted all my cuts from my iTunes library and I guess I wasn’t precise enough in copying them.
Everything’s workingOK now and I have several ideas for playlists.
Last week we had a taste of some ‘foreign’ sax and it was well received, so I did a quick scan through my iTunes and came up with these. I know there’s many ‘giants’ missing and there’s some repetition but it was a quick selection from a lot of ‘favorites’ folders. Just a note re.the various types of sax, the most common ones used are the soprano, the alto, the tenor and the baritone, I’ll list who plays what on this playlist.
They’re all favorites and I can’t narrow ‘em down any further. As usual Woordpress is acting silly, this week they’re randomly inserting the word ‘amp’ into the titles, can’t get rid of it.
Here’s a portion of Wiki’s summary of Michael Ondaatje’s latest novel – Warlight, which is currently keeping me totally enthralled. Alex Preston wrote in The Guardian that the novel “sucked me in deeper than any novel I can remember; when I looked up from it, I was surprised to find the 21st century still going on about me
“In London near the end of World War II, 14-year-old Nathaniel and his sister Rachel are left in the care of an enigmatic figure named The Moth, their parents having moved to Singapore.The Moth affiliates with a motley group of eccentric, mysterious, and in some ways nefarious characters who dominate the children’s experience early in the postwar period.
Going back to some Spiller’s recent comments about reading, I hope you caught that excellent essay on JLC in the G. recently and are planning to watch the BBC production of LeCarre’s ‘Little Drummer Girl’ tonight. It’s scheduled for US distribution on Nov 18th. There were also some positive responses to that Jamaican guy and his 8 murders book; I couldn’t finish it but I’m currently reading Kingston Noir – a series of short stories all set in Kingston, edited by the 8 murders guy. Ravi recommended “The Travels of Ibn Batuta, edited by Tim Mackintosh-Smith”, I have it from my library and am reading it right now. There must be someone here who has an idea or comment that could trigger some reaction from the rest of us, Trump monopolises my mind and I don’t want to say any more about the moron. Exciting news re. the new Dylan bootlegs?
Something that’s bothered me for most of my life has been the US military budget, not just for the financial waste but for the worldwide social implications. I recall back in the 60’s/70’s being aghast at it being near $400 billion, this year it’s close to a trillion dollars! A trillion dollars looks like this $1000,000,000,000, such numbers are meaningless, it’s a million billion, but what they do mean is that money spent on ‘defense’ isn’t spent on health, education, social services, child poverty, homelessness etc. The UK spends about $47 billion. Continue reading →
I’m a longtime fan of John LeCarre, I keep trying to read, see or hear anything and everything by or about him.
Consequently I’m a recent convert to Alan Furst, a very prolific writer who has written an extensive series of novels which, by and large are set in the Europe of the 1930’s and relate to the nazis, the Spanish civil war and espionage in general, a precursor if you like to Smiley. A wonderful and highly recommended author. Ask Wiki,
And then there’s the business with Khashoggi and Saudi Arabia, an oozing sore on the face of the planet. In 1988 Hillary Mantell and her husband lived in Jeddah, she wrote a book about her experiences there, it’s “Eight months on Ghazzah Street’ If you’re ever tempted to go to Saudi Arabia, don’t, read this instead.
Also I recently finished her novel,’A change of climate’ which is set in rural Norfolk and Botswana, another winner.
What are other Spillers reading obsessions these days?
One more detail: read Jay Raynor’s article on today’s front page, I wish I could write like he does.
When first we started talking about this 10 list business about 5-6 weeks ago I made a comment that I thought that the idea of standing in line for a ‘Wednesday’ posting opportunity was silly, especially since there was no structure and no one seemed anxious to assume whatever role was needed. Instead I suggested total anarchy, if you have a list ready to go, just post it. If 2 or 3 or 4 all post on the same day [extremely unlikely] , so what. we’re all capable of dealing with several items simultaneously and that includes playlists. All it would involve is establishing priorities, play this one first, then this , then that, simple. When I posted that comment there was no disagreement and even a couple of hear-hears, so I’m going to initiate that anarchy and not wait two weeks to post what I have already on my desktop and I suggest that anyone who chooses to post on this topic do likewise.
Here’s my first go, The Blues, with A and B lists, each with a bonus #11.
The Blues and jazz, often said to be America’s contribution to world culture started in the southern states right after emancipation. Individual freed slaves with nothing more than a primitive guitar sang about their burdens and the iniquities of life in a racist society. With the advent of instrumental jazz in New Orleans at the beginning of the twentieth century two separate forms evolved, country blues, i.e., simple single voices usually with just a guitar, and a more sophisticated instrumental form where the idiom was adapted into the evolving instrumental music, the beginnings of jazz. In the following lists there are examples of both styles. intermixed.
OK, here’s a thought. Suppose we had an ongoing post here that was basically a Spill billboard? A place to add any comment or question that need not be related to any existing post, it could be a comment about anything that might be annoying or delighting you, a place to post a youtube item or some such that you needed to share. If we’re lucky we might figure out how to post photos on it. I think it would be a useful addition to the Spill.
So, consider this post to be the first of many, I’ll repost it every week, if I fail someone needs to step up if it’s thought to be worthwhile
OK, for starters, there’s an ongoing news item that concerns me, it possibly relates to Brexit, and also perhaps to some social attitudes in UK. Recently in the Guardian there was a story about a group of men in Yorkshire, possibly in Bradford who were arrested and charged with sexual assault of minors, young teenage girls. Their photos were included and in the article and it was noted that they were all from Pakistan. There was little doubt that they were all guilty, as were a similar group about a year ago in Rotherham, the first group numbered about maybe a dozen, the second 5-6. My first question is why is this happening and the second is, is it a factor in peoples voting to leave the EU, i.e. to return to the ‘good old days’ before the advent of immigrants? Re. the first question I’m curious if there’s a cultural component, consider; there’s a large group of young men, mostly unemployed, mostly ill educated, all living as a cultural group in an ‘potentially hostile society’. They all have young men’s natural urges which may be more easily allayed ‘back home’, does any of that relate to the problem?
Anyone have any comments or thoughts on this topic?
There’s something I’ve wanted to introduce to the Spill audience for quite a long time but I’ve kept prevaricating. It’s radio, does anyone listen to radio anymore? I’ve spent my life listening to radio almost daily, delete that ‘almost’, I listen to radio every day and have done so for as long as I can remember, it started in about 1940. I’m not talking about pop music radio, I don’t think I’ve listened to that in about 50 plus years, I’m talking about what I consider to be ‘serious’ radio, non commercial interesting adult stuff, you know, arts, culture, politics, music, that sort of thing.
Since nothing seems to be happening here I’m going to pop this one in. I just had an email dialogue with Chris which prompted me to search my last 5 years posts. I happened on this one, it’s from 4-5 years ago and I opened it, it was fascinating in view of our current ’10 bests’ etc. Warning – If you open it you might be there a while.
Some time back I created, for my own entertainment, a list of songs from the 60’s-70’s that I’d enjoyed at the time, the list ran close to a hundred. I’ve just edited it down to 10. Ten favorites that you probably all know but perhaps haven’t heard for some time. They don’t get played much any more so here’s a chance to enjoy ’em again.
Rather than posting a ‘top ten cuts’ I’ll give you this which is way better, we could come back later for a ‘Top ten’.
Back in May ’76 I noticed a tiny item on the inner pages of the LA Times, Bob Marley and the Wailers were to play a gig at the Roxy in Hollywood on the Saturday followed by a show at Pauley Pavilion at UCLA on the Tuesday. I immediately called the Roxy, “Sorry this is a closed event, not open to the public” was the sorrowful news. Damn!
That afternoon I met my friend Ron and told him my tale of woe, “Hey no problem, you should speak with so and so, she’s married to the guy who owns the Roxy, she used to be my room mate, I’ll give her a call” About 5 minutes later my phone rang, it was she, calling from Spokane; “Hi, Ron tells me you want to see the Marley concert, how many tickets do you need?” Oh God, I almost fell off the chair, “Could I get two” I tentatively asked, “No problem, I’ll have them put your name at the will-call window for all-access, and would you like tickets for Pauley as well? This was too much, “I’d love it if you could do it” “No problem she said, “You’ll have two on the guest list there with all access”. I don’t remember what I spluttered at that point, I was probably just babbling inanities.
let me tell you a tale about what’s happening in the home of the brave and the land of the freewhere you can now legally buy or grow your own ganga.
Donkeys years ago, actually during the 1960’s, ganga was a popular underground recreational item, it was sold by the ‘lid’, I’ve no idea where that name originated but a lid was an ounce. Several of my friends would buy ‘bricks’, compressed blocks that were referred to as ‘kilos’, i.e.2+ lbs. They were called kilos because they came from Mexico. Back then Mexican ganga had many names, weed, grass. maryjane, herb. I recall one day going with a friend to pick up a kilo he wanted to buy, it was $125, it was sealed in plastic shrink wrap so we cleared the kitchen table, stripped the wrapping off and proceeded to break it down into a loose pile; there were tons of seeds and lots of stalks. We weighed it with a kitchen scale into ounces which were placed into small zip-lock bags, they would sell for about $4 – $5, if that pile was a kilo that would be about 35 baggies, 35 times $5 = $175, not an exhorbitant profit but enough to get by on given theliving costs of the ’60’s. That was Mexican weed, it needed cleaning,but it did the job, you could get a decent high from it.
I’ve mentioned before that when I was a radio DJ I kept a C120 of every show, I’ve recently started randomly playing them in the early hours; here’s a recent one I thought some of you might enjoy.
One of the frustrating things about radio playlists is ‘tim’, a 1 hour show is usually about 15 cuts given that the typical cut is 4-5 minutes. But it often seemed that the best cut on an album was always the longest, some going to 15-20 minutes. Including one or moreof those in a set could screw everything else up, so generally I avoided them.
To resolve that problem I’d occasionally do a show titled ‘Long Cuts’ which were just that. This one was from the first day of the new century, off to a good start. I’ve deleted all my chat and the station breaks etc. The show was a retrospection of the 60’s/70’s and cuts are;
I just, absolutely by accident, came upon this, it’s a‘Desert Island Discs’ from several years ago; the guest is Zadie Smith.
Coincidentally I just happen to be in the middle of my second reading of ‘White Teeth’ right now, so this was an extra treat.
I’m sure that over the years I’ve bored some of you with my obsessive rants about Zadie, she fits the category of ‘the one person, alive or dead’, who I’d choose as a single dinner guest; I think she’s fabulous. Not just for her writing but for her intellect and wide ranging interests and her ability to describe them. I came across this when searching for an essay she’d written for the New Yorker about Joni Mitchell.
The item that prompted me to post this was her choice of her favorite piece of music, not at all related to the list of pop music that she chose for the program but her all-time favorite piece, the Prelude to Tristan and Isoldeby Wagner.
Over the years I’ve occasionally ranted about Wagner and I’ve posted a couple of pieces here, including this one. I remember once stating that this was the piece I wanted to be played as they lit the match or lowered the box, whichever. I can’t imagine a better way to go, I think it’s possibly the most beautiful piece of music ever written, but what do I know?
So here’s the fragment from Desert Island discs followed by the full piece from youtube.
It’sthe Prelude to Tristan and Isolde by Wagner with Zubin Mehta conducting Bayerische Staatsoper Bayerisches Staatsorchester (National Theatre Munich)
If you want the whole Desert Island Discs, it’s at:
There’s one thing that constantly annoys me, a musical celebrity dies and the the Spill and all the the other blogs and music sources go into ‘grief mode’, there’s appreciative columns by the foot and playlists galore but what good does all that do for the artist? How about if we were to appreciate our musical hero’s whilst they were still with us? Let them know just how much they are appreciated?
Today it was announced that Paul Simon was retiring from touring, he’s still looking great but he’s now 76 and maybe that’s a good time to hang it up.
His fame and commercial success began as half of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, which was formed in 1964 with Art Garfunkel, that’s over a half century ago. He was responsible for writing nearly all of the pair’s songs, including three that reached No. 1 on the U.S. singles charts: “The Sound of Silence”, “Mrs. Robinson”, and “Bridge over Troubled Water”.
In 1986, he released Graceland, an album inspired by South African township music, which sold 14 million copies worldwide on its release and remains his most popular solo work, to my mind one of the great albums of the century and there were many more, all of which I’ve collected over the years.
So before he departs I’d like to salute one of my musical hero’s, Paul Simon, he’s provided me with more musical joy than most over the years, here’s a playlist of some of my favorite Paul Simon songs.
There’s a piece on the Guardian’s front page today by a guy who joined Nina in a hot tub, my experience with her was not so exotic but here’s how it happened. I posted this some years ago on the Spill but there’s enough new faces here to warrant a repeat.
One day back in the ’80’s Bob Andy, pioneer Jamaican musician, was staying with us in Long Beach California. On the Saturday I noticed that there was a free reggae festival in a park in south central LA. We decided to go. We were standing around between sets, sort of backstage, though there wasn’t any real backstage when I saw Nina Simone standing alone about 40ft away. I couldn’t believe it, I’d been a huge fan for all of my adult life, I’d never seen her perform, but there she was. I knew that she had a gig at the Wiltern theater in LA the following Tuesday so I excused myself from my wife and Bob and walked over to her, I introduced myself and told her how much I’d appreciated her music over the years and how much she’d meant to me. She was very cordial and we chatted, then I said “Nina, I’d like you to meet my friend Bob and my wife”; we walked back to where they were and I said ‘Nina, this is my friend Bob Andy’.
Everything changed at that moment, I’d not even remembered that Bob Andy and Marcia Griffith had had an English hit single back in the 70’s of Nina’s song “To be Young, Gifted and Black”. ‘Bob Andy’ she screamed ‘you’re that Bob Andy?’ ‘You god damn motherfucker, you ripped me off, I never got a penny for that song and you made millions!’ Bob and Marcia were a young Jamaican vocal duo back then, they recorded the song for Harry J’s studio in Kingston. Very doubtful that they made millions! Marcia went on to join the Wailers as one of Bob’s backing trio, the I 3’s.
What had been a pleasant surprise encounter had suddenly taken a nose dive, all there was now was anger and embarrassment. I tried to smooth things over but she obviously wasn’t having any so we gingerly backed off and I said something to the effect that I looked forward to her concert. ‘You show your face at my fucking concert you bastard, and I’ll have security throw you out!’ Oops, nothing I could say was going to work so we beat an ignominious retreat, but as we left I was approached by a guy who said that he was managing Nina and did I have any influence with the mayors office, I told absolutely none, I wasn’t at all involved with any of that.
On the way home I had a thought. Whenever there were high end celebrity visitors to LA I noticed that there were day’s proclaimed in their honour and the mayors office would issue proclamations, in the form of very ornate heraldic hand lettered documents listing that person’s contributions to society etc. The guys question made me think it might be appropriate to send a note to the mayors office and suggest this. I had an image of some flunky coming onstage before the show and making a bit of a fuss and then giving it to her so I sent a note and promptly forgot about it.
Regardless of Nina’s threats we went to both shows, the 7 pm and the 9 pm, I had a press pass that got us into the Wiltern and we could always grab any empty seats; we had two right in the front row and I had all my camera gear with me. I shot her discretely throughout the first show and then sat back and enjoyed the second. I didn’t even notice that there was no representative from the Mayors office.
The next day I went to work and when I came home at around 5pm I checked the mailbox as usual and there was a large 16″ by 20″ envelope screwed up and stuffed into it, I opened it and it was the proclamation for Nina! And there was a nasty note attached to the effect that if I requested a proclamation, then it was my responsibility to come and get it! Oh dear! Little did I understand the inner workings of LA politics. So what to do with it? The guy, who I later realised was the Ethiopian Orthodox minister who had conducted the ceremony for Bob Marley’s funeral at the National Stadium, had given me his card, so we called him and explained the screw up. He asked if we would bring it to her since she was leaving for Paris early the next day; she was staying at a place in the San Fernando valley which was about 75 miles from us and given her reaction on the weekend I didn’t really feel like 150 miles of LA rush hour traffic just to be Mr Niceguy. But we weakened, we found the address, her apartment door opened, the ‘manager’ stood there, we handed him the envelope with the wrinkled, creased proclamation, he thanked us and closed the door. It’s probably in her archive now.
And that was how we met Nina Simone!
Several years ago I went with some friends to a concert by Dave and his band. It was held in a barn, literally, It was on the edge of a commercial apple orchard about 2 miles from my house. His band was the Guilty Women, all women, mostly from this area, some live in Sebastopol, my current hometown. For me the highlight of the show was Nina Gerber, guitar, she’s amazing. It was a great concert and this was one of the songs he played, suddenly it’s totally topical right here where he played it. You’ve all seen those photos of the smog in Beijing where everyone wears smog masks, that’s what Santa Rosa looks like right now. If you’re curious there’s plenty of this band at youtube.
I recall that at some point within the last couple of years I posted “The Sidewinder” by Lee Morgan, it was a huge jazz hit in the US in 1963, you all responded nicely, it got a good reception. Lee Morgan was a NY jazz trumpeter who was very highly thought of, he was like the new Charlie Parker of the modern jazz movement. I just checked my postings and it doesn’t show so perhaps I posted it in Earworms or somesuch, no matter. The reason I mention this is because last night I saw a wonderful film titled “I called him Morgan”, it was on Netflix. It cleared up something that has bothered me most of my life, why did his wife who loved him dearly shoot and kill him with a revolver in a NY jazz club? A large part of the film comprises an interview with his wife. A beautiful film that everyone should see, there an excellent review at the LA Times. Sadly youtube doesn’t seem to have it though they do have pages of his music video. Look for it if you don’t have Netflix.
I hope there’s some Joni Mitchell fans hereabout; I’m going through my second infatuation of her, the first was about 40 odd years ago. I’m re-playing all my Joni videos. I Just played Shadows and Light, possibly one of the best concert videos ever, she’s backed with a great jazz group: it was recorded in 1979 at the Santa Barbara Bowl. I suspect that some must have seen it, if not it’s at youtube, Here it is. Pat Metheny – lead guitar
Jaco Pastorius – fretless bass (Fender Jazz)
Don Alias – drums, percussion
Lyle Mays – electric piano (Rhodes), synthesizer (Oberheim FVS-1)
Michael Brecker – saxophones
The Persuasions
A fabulous band!
Here’s a Monday morning treat to brighten up your week. I suspect that most of you know of Hilary Mantel, possibly through Henry VIII and Rose Hall, I’m currently reading everything she’s written and I came across this, I thought you’d all appreciate it. Given the current situation it does cause one to think.
Quite a few years ago my stepmother introduced me to one of her friends, his name was Bill and he was a retired schoolteacher from Lancashire, his wife was Jean and they lived in Norfolk; he was well into his 80’s. He’d taught French.
Bill and I hit it off immediately to an unbelievable degree, he in a tiny village in Norfolk and me in northern California, we began an email exchange that involved daily emails frequently, nay, always, running to several pages dealing primarily with gardening, the arts, politics, TV, books, travel and life in general: we became like brothers, we were ‘best friends’. He was the best friend I ever had.
One day Bill revealed to me that he had loved jazz as a young man but that his wife absolutely hated it and wouldn’t allow it in the house. Jazz had been my main source of musical enjoyment for most of my life. Bill was extremely competent with the PC computer system, I was a Mac owner. I suggested that I could send him a selection of jazz that he could enjoy on headphones that wouldn’t bother Jean, he thought that was a good idea. So I created the enclosed playlist and emailed it to him, he responded how much he enjoyed it. It was all new stuff to him but he was so open minded that he played it regularly whenever he was on his computer. He also regularly visited the Spill and shared his comments and opinions with me.
I know that I’ve bored some of you with my Mahler obsession in the past but this time’s slightly different.
I discovered Mahler in about 1964/65 as a result of buying a Bernstein Columbia box set which included the symphonies 2, 6 and 9; I absolutely fell in love with the 2nd symphony. To the degree that I recall saying [to myself of course] that I’d travel anywhere in the US to hear it performed live. I never actually did travel but in the intervening years I’ve heard it live twice, in LA and in SF.
About at that same period a NY businessman, a very wealthy businessman, Gilbert Kaplan, also discovered Mahler’s second symphony. He became so obsessed with this single piece of music that he travelled the world to hear it performed by all of the top conductors. In 1982, after a series of rehearsals, Mr. Kaplan hired the American Symphony Orchestra to present Mahler’s Second Symphony under his baton at the Lincoln Center. The music critic of the Village Voice gave the performance a rave review,he declared the interpretation “one of the five or six most profoundly realized Mahler Seconds” in the previous 25 years. Even those attendees not schooled in music seemed to recognize that they had witnessed something remarkable. That’s about when I became aware of Gilbert Kaplan.
Here’s a portion of Wiki’s summary of Michael 
The 'Spill 