March 2007 Podcast: The Progressive Show

The March Rambling Podcast is The Progressive Show. The setlist is:

1. Pink Floyd - One of these days (02:15-08:25)
2. The Bad Plus - Live and Let Die (08:40-13:25)
3. Mike Oldfield - Ommadawn (14:35-23:20)
4. Le Monde de Kota - L'Ascenscion d'un Nuage de Bonheur (24:10-30:50)
5. Henry Butler - Something You Got (31:15-37:35)
6. Yes - Soundchaser (38:40-48:05)
7. King Crimson - Three of a Perfect Pair (49:35-53:30)
8. Peter Madcat Ruth - Neela's Dream (53:30-58:25)

For more info on this podcast in general, check out the generic Rambling Podcast post.

The more perceptive of you will have noticed that I missed February. In actual fact, the show was more or less ready for Feb. 28th, which was cutting it a little short, I'll admit, but then I thought I'd wait for the banner (LG is as busy as he's talented...) I got the banner a couple of weeks back, but then I listened to my comments again and thought I'd redo the whole thing.

This new show is very different from the previous ones since it focuses on an approach to music that's quite trans-genre. Since the term "progressive" is most often associated with rock, I'll let you discover for yourself common definitions of Prog Rock on Wikipedia. I've extrapolated the characteristics generally associated with progressive rock to other genres in order to keep a thematic consistency and yet introduce variety. Hopefully, I've succeeded.

Incidentally, there are several references to famous progressive icons on the banner, anyone who points them out in the comments earns my appreciation and admiration!

Here is the detailed track listing:

Pink Floyd - One of these Days: No one introduces Pink Floyd anymore. It's probably one of the very first bands I loved and age hasn't made me appreciate the first two line-ups less. One of these Days is a psychedelic instrumental that appears on the album Meddle and displays the very characteristic bass playing of Roger Waters. The full title of the piece us uttered by Nick Mason at the very end was apparentlymeant as a direct threat to a BBC DJ whom Pink Floyd despised. One of these days is also featured on the stunningly odd Live at Pompeii movie. This version is from a 1971 BBC Radio show. (Source: September 30th, 1971 - London, UK)

The Bad Plus - Live and Let Die: I was first introduced to The Bad Plus last summer by a colleague and it was their covers that first allowed me to enter their very strange world. That's why the track featured here is a cover of Live and Let Die, the title track to the James Bond movie of the same name. The original was performed for the movie soundtrack by Paul McCartney and has been extensively covered over the years. It can be found, unsurprisingly, on the Live and Let Die Soundtrack. The Bad Plus cover, as far as I know, has never been released on record, but if you're interested in their approach to jazz and rock, you could do worse than check out there debut album These are the Vistas or indeed, any one of their following releases. Incidentally, I just found out that they had a new album coming out on May 8th entitled Prog! (Source: August 7th, 2006 - Amsterdam, Netherlands)

Mike Oldfield - Ommadawn: Mike Oldfield became mega-famous (and incidentally made Richard Branson's fortune) with the release of the 1973 album Tubular Bells. Mike Oldfield not only composed the orchestral piece but played every single instrument on it. Ommadawn was released in 1975 and fused the orchestral prog rock approach pioneered by Tubular Bells with celtic musical motifs and instrumentations. The original is a 35mn piece in which, again, Oldfield plays dozens of instruments. The version featured here is from a 1983 live concert celebrating the ten years of the release of Oldfield's first album and is a much shortened version of the first movement of Ommadawn, although most of the themes and progressions are easily recognisable. (Source: July 22nd, 1983 - Wembley, UK)

Le Monde de Kota - L'ascenscion d'un nuage de bonheur: Le Monde de Kota is a recently formed French jazz band whose instrumentation and approach are quite unusual in jazz. Their debut album Murmures was my pick of the year 2006 record, and I wrote a detailed review of it to be found here. L'ascenscion d'un nuage de bonheur (The ascent of a cloud of happiness) is a composition by chromatic harmonica player Olivier Goulet from that album and features the kind of playing around structure and sound texture that I associate with prog music. (Source: Le Monde de Kota - Murmures)

Henry Butler - Something You Got: I discovered Henry Butler on the magnificent duo album he did with guitarist Corey Harris, Vü-dü Menz. I got to see the duo live, and then him solo, a couple of years later. Butler was classically trained, then became a staple of n'awlins piano in the wake of great New Orleans musicians like Professor Longhair and James Booker. Indeed, elements of his approach to breaking structure and injecting outside influences to blues can be found in booker's recordings as well. Butler's original recording of Something You Got can be found on his album Orleans Inspiration. (Source: February 10th, 2007 - Memphis, USA)

Yes - Soundchaser: I'm not a huge fan of Yes overall, their romantic streak is often excessive for my tastes. That being said, Relayer, the 1974 album that features Soundchaser is quite different from the previous ones to these ears. The baroque aspects of the music are still present, but it's less crystalline, dirtyer - overall, more of a rocker. The emphasis on Soundchaser is on the bass, and listening to it it's quite evident why Chris Squire is often considered a legend amongst bass players. His playing is fast yet precise, and the sound is huge. (Source: December 11th, 1974 - Boston, USA)

King Crimson - Three of a Perfect Pair: As a band, King Crimson has known numerous incarnations, from it's first release in 1969 to the present day. The only constant is founding guitarist Robert Fripp. In addition to him, the pop-prog formation of the 80s featured Adrian Belew on guitar and vocals, Tony Levin on bass and chapman stick and Bill Bruford on drums. They released three excellent albums including Three of a Perfect Pair. It's probably the more accessible period of King Crimson's work, although the early records, In the Court of the Crimson King in particular, are heavily recommended. (Source: June 27th 1984 - New York, USA)

Peter Madcat Ruth - Neela's Dream: Although more known in the circles of blues and americana, Peter Madcat Ruth is not only a perpetuator of a great musical tradition, but also explores his instruments and their musical uses through his solo work and in the Triple Play formation with bassist Chris Brubeck and guitarist Joel Brown. His most exploratory work is undoubtedly the Madcat's Harmonicology album which features mostly harmonica in various forms and very few backing unstruments. Neela's Dream is my favourite track from that record, using several different harmonicas overlayered over a John Lee Hooker-esque boogie beat. (Source: Peter Madcat Ruth - Madcat's Harmonicology)

And this is it ! Many thanks to Le Monde de Kota and Peter Madcat Ruth for allowing me to use tracks from their respective albums. Additional thanks to Scot Ray and Olivier Ker-Ourio for recording the really cool jingles. And finally, a third round of thanks to Bill Barrett for letting me use his Corn on the Cob from Brother Weasel's Swingin' & Groovin' as an intro and outro to the show.

Please leave comments !!!

Comments

[Harmonica Ben]

Si il y a bien quelque chose qui n'est pas progressif dans ce podacst, c'est le plaisir de l'écouter en boucle !
Bravo et merci pour cette sélection musicale !

[Murray]

I look forward to another broadening of my horizons into strange worlds. Dig that Hungarian Minor.

[Benoît F.]

Hungarian Minor ?

In terms of Strange Worlds, you should be served !

No one has spotted even the remotest prog reference in the banner yet. I'm ashamed of my readers !

;-)

[Molloy]

I'm extremely fond of this venue of the rambling podcast, and that's all but natural as I'm pretty much a (free) jazz buff, fed on Coltrane and Dolphy with an occasionnal dash of Zeppelin.

Quite a bunch of nice recordings here, as usual. I'm especially fond of The Bad Plus cover, and if you like that enough to add it to your podcast, I sense a massive trap laying somewhere ahead of your musical wanderings, called the NYC Avant-Garde Scene... Soundchaser kicks ass, and I concur with your opinion on Chris Squire. Most, most, most impressive bass lines. I also seriously dig Mr Peter Madcat Ruth way of blowing his harp way out of the usual boundaries of the instrument. Too bad the track's too short -- any prog or free jazz fan feels frustrated with tracks less than 8mn long.

As for the references : you've got tubular bells of course, a famous Battersea power station, the drooling face of the 21st century schizoid man, a very "yessy" way of writing "prog"... That's all I can tell at first glance. ;-)

[Benoît FELTEN]

You got them all, Molloy !

A present is on your way !!!

Glad you like it. I've known about the NYC avant-garde scene for a while. I suspect I'm going to fall into MMW next !

[Edu Calle]

Good show Ben!

Love the Madcat's song. Where can I buy his records? I'm unable to find them.

Thanks a lot.

[Thomas]

Stream-of-consciousness comments, written as I was listening to the show. References mentioned below are used to express what I felt when listening to the tracks, not to claim that the artists plagiarized so and so.

1. Pink Floyd. I dig this. I now understand better why French celtic band Tri Yann defined itself as a "progressive folk" band in the 1970s.
2. The whatisname. I love crazy covers so this perfect. Honestly, I wouldn't go through an entire album of that same genre if it weren't covers. However, if it were strictly covers :)
3. Mike Oldfied. Full-on 1970s Tri Yann, or Alan Stivell actually. So more excellent stuff. It seems this use of vocals really inspired the musicians of Cirque du Soleil.
4.Le monde de Kota. Nice but I'm not a big fan of jazz, so there. Sounds a bit too much like a movie soundtrack to me, and like guys who're having fun amongst themselves while I just don't get it and get bored.
5. Henry Butler. Kinda sounds like that drunk guy fooling around at the piano as the party's slowly dying :) It gets much easier on my ears as soon as he stops singing and concentrates on the keyboard.
6. Yes. I like it, it reminds me a bit of "Leb i Sol" in the beginning, then gets a bit too "Supertramp" with the vocals. But the drums and the bass (that can actually be heard clearly), the funky, groovy bits are excellent! The guitar+keyboard really sounds like Leb i Sol, (Aberdojde donke or something like that) and I dig it. I like when people use guitars like this, and not like in Oasis.
7. King Crimson. I like the music, but the singing is ...well.... Sometimes they sound like the Talking Heads, sometimes like myself drunk at karaoke night.
8. Peter McRuth. Very, very cool! Talk about non-boring solos! There must be something about harmonica and distorted electric guitar that touches me, as opposed to pop-rock guitar chords that just make me wanna kill someone.

To sum it up: my favourite episode so far. You widened the small selection of "rock that I like". It was limited to the Velvet Underground and to some crazy Doors tunes and now I have an entire sub-genre to explore.

Thanks a lot!