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News from the darkest corners of the
musical universe:
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Monday, March 28, 2005 ◦
The Thurston Lava Tube have a new album out, called The Pink Elephant with Nipples for Tusks. There's a track on the free downloadable sampler at www.cordelia-records.co.uk.
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Saturday, March 19, 2005 ◦
There's a new Weirdomusic.com 'Album of the moment':
King Richard's Fluegel Knights - Sign of the times.
Grab it while it's hot!
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Friday, March 18, 2005 ◦
Lyn Collins, singer and songwriter: born Dime Box, Texas 12 June 1948; married (two sons); died Los Angeles 13 March 2005.
Lyn Collins was the featured vocalist with James Brown's Soul Revue between 1971 and 1976. Her powerful voice and compelling stage presence made her a natural foil for "The Godfather of Soul", although, she claimed later, "I would have preferred to sing more and scream less".
Brown, who dubbed her "The Female Preacher", signed Collins to his People label and produced her signature song, "Think (About It)", which first made the Top Ten in the US R&B charts before in 1972 crossing over to the mainstream charts. In the mid-Eighties, the feminist war-cry was revived by rare groove DJs in Britain and Collins's vocal ad lib "It takes two to make a thing go right, It takes two to make it out of sight" went on to become one of the most sampled funk moments, most famously providing the title and the infectious hook for "It Takes Two" by Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock which became a UK hit twice over in 1988 and 1989. Eric B & Rakim, De La Soul, DJ Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince, Janet Jackson and Public Enemy are some of the 70-plus artists who have sampled "Think (About It)" over the last 20 years.
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Thursday, March 17, 2005 ◦
Larry Bunker, a drummer and percussionist who played with a who's who of jazz giants and fashioned a busy career as a film musician, has died. He was 76.
Bunker died March 8 at Queen of Angels-Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles of complications from a recent stroke, said his wife, Brandyn.
A native of Long Beach, Bunker was musically inclined from an early age and was self-taught on piano, accordion, drums and saxophone. In 1946, he was accepted into the U.S. Army band and played drums and piano while serving at Ft. Ord until his discharge in 1948.
In the early 1950s, he played with trombonist Howard Rumsey at the fabled Lighthouse Cafe in Hermosa Beach. From then on, he played with the top names in jazz, including saxophonists Stan Getz, Art Pepper and Gerry Mulligan, and guitarist Barney Kessel. He was also a member of singer Peggy Lee's band.
He joined Bill Evans in 1964 for one of the pianist's better trios. In an interview with Down Beat magazine in 1964, Evans called Bunker a "marvelous musician."
"He plays excellent vibes as well as being an all-round percussionist, and being so musical he just does the right thing because he's listening," Evans said. "He really knows music, feels music -- and is a superlative drummer."
Throughout his long career, Bunker was a highly sought-after studio musician for movies who worked with a number of leading film composers, including Henry Mancini, Alfred Newman, Miklos Rosza, Jerry Goldsmith, Johnny Mandel and John Williams. His first film was "Stalag 17" in 1953 and his last was "The Incredibles" in 2004.
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Saturday, March 12, 2005 ◦
Jeanette Schmid, Austria's last professional whistler, who once shared a stage with Frank Sinatra, died of the flu Thursday. She was 80. Schmid, better known as Baroness Lips von Lipstrill, died in her Vienna apartment.
Schmid, born a man in what now is the Czech Republic, underwent a gender change in 1964 in Cairo, where she lived for 15 years.
She embarked on a whistling career during a visit to Tehran to perform for the Shah of Iran. Her costume as a dancer was deemed too skimpy, so she whistled a Johann Strauss Jr. polka instead.
She whistled on stage with Sinatra, Marlene Dietrich and Edith Piaf, and she continued performing even in recent years. Schmid was a popular performer on cruises, where she delighted audiences by hitting the high C.
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Thursday, March 10, 2005 ◦
New Weirdomusic.com album share online now: The Tequila Brass - Tamla Meets Tijuana. As always there's more great stuff to be found in our downloads section.
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Tuesday, March 08, 2005 ◦
Ruth Welcome, 87 of Sun City died March 6, 2005. Ms. Welcome was the only woman professional zither artist in the United States and Canada. Born in Germany she came to this country at the age of eight. Ms. Welcome received her formal music education at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City where she majored in violin and piano. Ms. Welcome made her professional debut in New York City in 1953 and became a standard attraction at Manhattan's famous Hampshire House where she appeared for five years. After leaving New York, she played all over the United States and Canada.
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Monday, March 07, 2005 ◦
Dana Countryman interviewed Martin Denny, on July 4th, 1997, at the height of the reinterest in "Exotica". The interview was published in his magazine, COOL AND STRANGE MUSIC MAGAZINE, with Mr. Denny gracing the cover. The complete unedited interview is now online at Danacountryman.com.
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Sunday, March 06, 2005 ◦
Available now from Atavistic.com: Sun Ra - The Magic Sun (dvd).
"The classic 1966 film by Phill Niblock featuring Sun Ra & His Solar Arkestra, plus rare & exclusive Sun Ra footage, photos & audio 'proclamations'! Composer, photographer and filmmaker Phill Niblock's classic of experimental underground filmmaking with a sensational soundtrack by pianist Sun Ra and the members of his Solar Arkestra. Shot in the mid '60s, when the Arkestra was based in New York, this film was produced using a unique negative process and ultra-tight close-ups on the moving hands and mouths of the musicians. The result is a virtually abstract music film, mastered from a new print in all its incredibly sharp black & white glory. The Magic Sun DVD also includes a luminous, largely unseen photo gallery accompanied by 14:00 of unheard, self-recorded Ra audio: a truly 'inside' auto-bio interview; TRT approx 32:00."
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Saturday, March 05, 2005 ◦
Martin Denny was best known for developing and defining his own sound, "exotica," combining bird calls, jungle chimes, croaking frogs and Asian, Latin and Pacific riffs with jazz and pop music.
In his heyday, Denny's O'ahu-based band included Augie Colon, who was the originator of the bird calls, and Arthur Lyman, a vibraphone player who also became an exponent of "exotic" music worldwide. Both are also gone.
"He is now playing exotica music with Augie and Arthur in heaven," said Lloyd Kandell, a Honolulu musician who has been carrying on the exotica tradition with Denny's blessing through the act called Don Tiki.
"He went very peacefully, graciously," said his daughter, Christina, who was his caregiver. "Dad had multiple organ failure, and he rallied up and down in recent weeks. But he was lucid till the end, happy and comfortable. I kissed his masterful hands — and said goodbye."
Read full story here.
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Friday, March 04, 2005 ◦
Weirdsville Webradio has created a special all-Martin Denny webradio stream in celebration of his life and music. More tracks will be added throughout the day.
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Thursday, March 03, 2005 ◦
We've just received some very sad news through the Exotica Mailinglist:
"Martin Denny (born April 10, 1911) died peacefully at home last night. He was amazing and inspirational to the end... calm, lucid, loving. Only two weeks ago he performed 4 songs at a fundraiser here.
Light your tiki torches for Marty on his passage to playing celestial exotica with Augie and Arthur. There will be more extensive coverage in the afternoon editions of the local papers: starbulletin.com and honouluadvertiser.com."
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