If you’re on Facebook, you may have come across a recent meme there which states simply:
15 albums that have had a big impact on me.
Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen albums you’ve heard that will always stick with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes.
Myself, Alex and Urbangraffito ended up posting our fifteen minutes of fame albums “that have had a big impact on us”, and thought it might make for interesting blog fodder. As first in a series, here’s my list – in no particular order, and annotated for good measure.
I recall the first time I ever encountered the work of Gil Scott-Heron, I was in my mid teens and I had just borrowed a load of records, among them his 1971 release, Pieces of a Man from the public library on a whim (I had never heard of him before). I did that a lot back then – borrow whole batches of vinyl records during the summer vacation and listen to albums all week long. When I got home and slipped Pieces of a Man onto the turntable for the first time, Gil Scott-Heron blew my mind, especially with spoken word and vocal jazz tracks like “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”, “Home Is Where The Hatred Is” and “Lady Day & John Coltrane” (all video clips below) to name just a few. (more…)
Sometimes I am quite delighted to discover a fan-made Frank Zappa video like the one posted above. It reinforces my belief that the future of FZ’s public image is in the right hands: creative, open-minded, technology embracing hands. This is how I always envisioned Zappa’s legacy being spread. (more…)
Welcome to KUR’s 2nd Annual Virtual Zappanale Mix for August 2010. For those of us who cannot make it to this year’s festival in Bad Doberan, I have compiled an eclectic mix of some of my favorite FZ covers by well known alumni – and some other not so well known. On this virtual stage, time and space does not matter as acts appear fresh from 1969, while others are temporarily brought back from the hereafter for just one more kick at the can, so to speak, all together in one mix. Of course, I’d love to be there in Bad Doberan, and perhaps I will go there one day, myself. Until then, enjoy the music of the maestro. And the spirit of the Mothers…
Next August 24, The Ed Palermo Big Band will be playing at the City Winery, which is cool because they’re one of the superior FZ tributes out there IMHO — but there’s a twist:
As the night progresses we will find opportunities to pair Zappa tunes with a selection of world-class wines that pair with the different period and themes of Frank’s career. The wine focus of this educational and entertaining night will be Zinfandel, a truly original American wine with its roots in the Old World, but a product of the hard work of immigrants, just as Zappa created a truly unique and original sound from his humble beginnings.
Cute, though I’d personally prefer a beer themed venue: a nice Duvel to kick things off with Titties ‘n Beer, a lovely Grimbergen to go with Cruisin’ For Burgers perhaps — oh the possibilities!
Warning: You’re about to enter a zone heavy with nostalgia. Take with a very large grain of salt.
In the late 70s and early 80s (yes, when Dinosaurs roamed the city streets wearing Walkmans and eating veggieburgers) – when a Zappa tour was an almost regular (if not annual) occurrence, and a Zappa fan might expect sometimes multiple releases from the maestro, and my own rabid obsession with the Mothers of Invention (and all things Zappa) was at least at a somewhat manageable level – myself and my fellow freaks had devised a method of determining the level of freakdom of a given Zappa fan by what albums they had in their collection. (more…)
Waiting in my inbox today was a missive from an impressive and interesting chap, to say the very least: one Chanan Hanspal, a composer/guitarist of Welsh Indian extraction from Wales. Who is Chanan Hanspal? Click on his name and discover more about how he dove into the London jazz funk world – played, recorded, and toured with the likes of Kylie Minogue, Geri Halliwell, and Pharoah Sanders to name just a few. (more…)
It’s that time of the month, fellow KUR-Meisters, when I dip into my personal, not-so-mythic, vault of Zappa field recordings to compile the latest KUR mix: the “Immaculate Voodoo Butter Mix – Part IV“. What is Part IV? Part IV is 200 tracks from the maestro’s last two touring bands, ’84 and ’88, beginning with a Rehearsal session from December 23rd, 1987. Why 200 tracks? 200 allows for the best performances of each respective tour to shine through…
Note: In the tradition of leaving the best for last, the fifth and final installment of the Immaculate Voodoo Butter Mix will arrive on July 15th, 2010.
