News from the darkest corners...

Composer Michael Barr, whose songs were recorded by artists including Barbra Streisand and Blossom Dearie, died May 19 in Hollywood of complications from diabetes. He was 82.

Barr’s early jazz composition “Kicks” was recorded by June Christy and Billy May for Capitol Records. In 1956, he began a long collaboration with the late lyricist Dion McGregor and their song “Try Your Wings,” written for Dearie’s first Verve album that year, was recently featured on the soundtrack of the 2003 film “My Life Without Me” and was also recorded by Anita O’Day. Dearie recorded another of their songs, “Hello Love,” in 1960, and Joel Grey recorded their songs “Be My Next” and “Sawdust Dreams” for Capitol.

In 1965, Streisand chose their song “Where Is The Wonder” for her debut album “My Name Is Barbra.”

Barr, who was born in Vincennes, Ind., was introduced to McGregor by actor-singer Carleton Carpenter. The three of them later collaborated on the musical “Twofer,” which had a production in Los Angeles staged by actress Lurene Tuttle.

(Source: Variety.com)

The next manifestation of the Sun Ra Arkestra under the direction of Marshall Allen will take place at The Vision Festival, June 10, 2009 in New York City.

Marshall Allen will be honored at this event when he receives the 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award from Arts for Art and the Vision Festival. This all takes place at the Abrons Art Center, 466 Grand Street, New York City starting at 7:30 pm.

The Sun Ra Arkestra performance is scheduled to start at 9:30 pm. Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 the day of the show and are on sale at the Abrons Art Center, by calling 866-811-4111 or online at http://www.henrystreet.org

Special guests joining the Arkestra at this performance are Billy Bang (violin) and John Ore (bass).

There will also be a special set at 7:30 pm at the June 10, 2009 Vision Festival event that will feature Marshall Allen on reeds being joined by Kidd Jordan on tenor sax, William Parker on bass, Henry Grimes on bass & violin, and Hamid Drake on drums.

For additional information about the 2009 Vision Festival, please visit www.visionfestival.org

New free download, available now from our label WM Recordings:

Manuele Atzeni – The Miyazaki Tour EP

Manuele Atzeni a.k.a. Miyazaki is a dj/producer from the underground music scene in Florence, Italy. Born as a hard-techno dj, since 2001 he has been spinning and scratching in parties, clubs and festivals around Italy mixing hip hop, funk and drum ‘n bass.

Manuele Atzeni’s music is heavily hip hop/electro influenced with a strong jazz/funk taste.

Buddy Montgomery, a jazz pianist and vibraphonist best known for his work with the guitarist Wes Montgomery, his older brother, died on May 14, 2009, at his home in Palmdale, Calif. He was 79. The cause was a heart attack.

Buddy Montgomery and another brother, the bassist Monk Montgomery, were members of Wes Montgomery’s quartet on and off during the 1960s. They first worked with him when he was critically acclaimed but little known outside the jazz world and toured with him again after he made a series of lushly orchestrated albums that cracked the pop charts, although they did not play on those records.

Both Buddy and Monk Montgomery had considerable success before then as members of the Mastersounds, a West Coast quartet that specialized in a quiet, gently swinging brand of modern jazz; Buddy played vibraphone with the group. It made several well-received albums for the Pacific Jazz Label between 1957 and 1961.

After Wes Montgomery’s death in 1968, Buddy became active as a jazz educator and advocate. He founded organizations in Milwaukee and Oakland, Calif. that offered jazz classes and presented free concerts.

Montgomery also continued to perform, primarily as a pianist, and led a trio at the Parker Meridien Hotel in New York from 1989 to 1993 before moving back to California.

Over the years Montgomery recorded several albums as a leader. He also performed and recorded with the singer Marlena Shaw, the saxophonist David “Fathead” Newman and others.

Some 17 years after the original Beat The Boots boxes the Zappa Family Trust have released Beat The Boots III, a series of six album downloads of Frank Zappa material that was originally available on bootleg albums only.

The original volumes of Beat The Boots were released through Rhino Entertainment in 1991 and 1992 as part of Zappa’s campaign to dissuade his fans from buying illegal recordings of his concerts. This third volume in the series has so far been only made available as downloads on Amazon in the US, the UK and Germany and on Napster in the US. There has been no official announcement of these releases yet, so it’s not clear if these albums will also be released through iTunes or in any other format.

Night and Day of the Sun
Friday May 22nd Midnight to Midnight on KFJC 89.7 FM.

Hosted by Spliff Skankin, Hawkeye Joe, Nancy Reagan, KFJC Jazz Kollective and many more.

The annual 24 hour Sun Ra birthday tribute. Featuring rare recordings, live music, lectures, interviews, jam sessions, Sun Ra fashion show, Sun Ra history, new Arkestra recordings and much more.

Another previously unreleased TV soundtrack makes its debut – this is the double CD set of Laurie Johnson’s Jason King TV show soundtrack – the 70s cult TV show starring Peter Wyngarde.

Never previously released and compiled from the original master tapes, this two-CD set comprises the themes and incidental music for Jason King, containing around 70 pieces of music which were specially composed for the series.

Laurie Johnson’s melodies transport the listener around the world with the playboy novelist, as he is approached by a femme fatale in Athens, finds himself the subject of a contract in Paris, attempts to lose weight at a health farm near Munich, combats a computerised crime syndicate in London, is supplied with cryptic phrases in the Caribbean, dances at discos in Switzerland, leads a trio of detectives in Moscow, studies comic strips in Hong Kong, deals with a doppelgänger in Istanbul, investigates murder in Rome, sees his stories brought to life as films at a British film studio… and attempts to sell his hero Mark Caine to the American TV networks.

Ordering info at Moviegrooves.com.

RalphAmerica reports that “Icky Flix Live”, the recent DVD release by The Residents is available again:

“If you missed out on the first pressing of the Icky Flix Live DVD, it’s back in it’s 2nd pressing form.

Icky Flix as recorded by 5 cameras at the Experience Music Museum in Seattle. We were there, this was a crazy show, with a HUGE video screen behind them, and all sorts of crazy added lights and effects that weren’t at any of the other shows on the tour. This is the entire show.

It’s exactly the same as the first pressing except: New cover, and no hand numbers as this 2nd pressing is limited to 350 copies (and this is acknowledged on the back cover).”

Place your orders at http://ralphamerica.com

RaymondScott.com reports:

During the past several years, Raymond Scott’s only son, Stan Warnow, has been making a documentary film about his pioneering & eccentric father. Stan, who has been a professional in movies & TV since the 1960s (including the Academy Award® winning WOODSTOCK film, HAIR, RAGTIME, ISLE OF WIGHT FESTIVAL, plus SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, & THE WONDER YEARS on television), plans to unveil his doc in 2009 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of his dad’s birth.

The film combines archival footage & historic photographs with interviews of Raymond Scott’s family & professional colleagues, as well as followers such as John Williams, Mark Mothersbaugh, Don Byron, Hal Willner, & DJ Spooky. The documentary’s soundtrack has been constructed entirely from Scott’s own compositions.

Stay tuned for updates, trailers, & more: ScottDoc.wordpress.com

Our friends at Maidenwine.com, The Ultimate Leonard Nimoy Music Site, report:

We just added tons of new updates to the site. The greatest Bilbo Baggins photos we’ve ever seen! Some really neat foreign records and lots of great pictures. We even added the full uncut outtake of the bicycle duet from the TOS Space Hippies episode! Last but not least, a fan letter from Leonard Nimoy himself.

See for yourself at www.maidenwine.com

Stephen Bruton, a Texas musician admired and much in demand as much for his astute guitar work as for his insights as a songwriter, died Saturday in Los Angeles of complications of cancer that he’d been battling for several years. He was 60.

Bruton, who had played with Kris Kristofferson for nearly 40 years and whose songs had been recorded by Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Jimmy Buffett and numerous others, died at the home of his friend since childhood, musician-producer T Bone Burnett, with whom he’d recently completed work on a film, “Crazy Heart,” that Burnett is producing and for which he asked Bruton to produce the music.

Bruton released five albums as a solo artist, and was the guitarist of choice for many longtime associates when they needed an evocative sound, instrumental color, to-the-point solo or melodic idea to complement their songs.

Available now on Zappa Records: a download of “Mothermania”, the 1969 Mother of Invention compilation, just in time for the 40th anniversary.

“Mothermania” was compiled by Frank Zappa himself and has never been officialy reissued since it’s initial release. The album contains various alternate versions of tracks from the first three Mother of Invention albums.

This Frank Zappa download is available in DRM-free, MP3 256KBPS and FLAC format. According to Zappa.com “FZ’s MP3’s will play on iPod® and all MP3 players.”

More downloads are said to be expected soon.

This CD release of Dr. Timothy Leary’s Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out is the first ever reissue of the ESP-Disk’ vinyl edition originally released in1966. This unadorned spoken word recording of the 60’s icon, Timothy Leary (“the most dangerous man alive”), was recorded at the famous Millbrook, New York estate just before his residency was ended by repeated raids and arrests by G. Gordon Liddy. Though the album title, Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out, became a clichéd rallying cry for a whole generation, it was presented to the public here for the first time. In this document, he presents his ideas on drugs, current events and cultural phenomena, with recollections of earlier experiences and experiments; all delivered in a straight ahead, quiet manner, even though the content is downright subversive and confrontational. An absolute must for anyone interested in the 1960’s or countercultural thinking of any era.

(Street date: June 23rd, 2009)

In their own words: “Tarana Records in the 7th year release their entire back catalogue as free downloads. This includes 89 albums of pure improvised Sheffield UK based band Tarana. The band has meaningless syllable improvised vocals and various line ups of musicians. Follow the free music downloads link from www.taranarecords.com to download tracks or stream whole albums.”