Kurt Elling Nightmoves Friday Sampler

The number of current jazz singers doing something beyond crooning standards is a small one. But Kurt Elling is one. His style is certainly an acquired taste, as the venerable Covalent Bond would say, but rewards the receptive eardrum. "A New Body and Soul" from his spring 2007 album Nightmoves is a perfect example: an extended exploration of love and mortality calling on images of Orpheus and Eurydice, Shiva, and the Itsy Bitsy Spider.

And if you do like your standards, come on in. Mister Elling can also rock Irving Berlin, Jobim, and the Guess Who.

Kurt Elling Nightmoves Friday Sampler - [Rhapsody Online version]

A New Body and Soul
Change Partners/If You Never Come To Me
Undun

Out To Lunch Friday Playlist

Today out to lunch a buffet of good stuffs to flavor a late summer Friday morning. First, I couldn't hold myself to one track from these Bobby "Blue" Bland and Clovers albums. Who could pass up a peppy ode to filling your pockets with nips before heading out on the town? Not this cheap drunk, that's for sure.

Then it's mannish boy Duster Bennett with a fruitily petulant reading of One Way Out. Mr. Bennett wrote Jumpin' At Shadows, which was recorded by the Peter Green Fleetwood Mac, and this whole "Complete Blue Horizon Sessions" came into Rhapsody not too long ago. It's well worth a listen if you're at all into that kind of thing.

From there it's a visit with the 2007 post-Tweedy Golden Smog from the fine Blood On The Slacks EP.

And I usually avoid remixes like green hamburger, but this Messer Chups Frankenstein job on Chet Baker is damn good eating.

Happy Friday, peoples!

Out To Lunch Friday Playlist [Rhapsody Online Version]

If I Could Be Loved By You - The Clovers
Nip Sip - The Clovers
St. James Infirmary - Bobby "Blue" Bland
Turn On Your Love Light - Bobby "Blue" Bland
It's A Man Down There - Duster Bennett
Tarpit - Golden Smog
Grey December - Chet Baker
Grey December (Messer Depressive Mix) - Messer Chups

Out To Lunch Friday Playlist

As fantastic as it is to see Dean Martin's name in that Top 15 Artists list in the Rhapsody, I was a bit underwhelmed by the chemistry on the new posthumous duets album carrying his name.

Today out to lunch let's serve up the most satisfying and incendiary duet I've come across in Rhapsody. It's Fred Schneider and Sleater-Kinney burning things up on the Hedwig and the Angry Inch tribute album. Delicious.

From there it's just an extra little bit of Friday goodness farmed over the last few weeks.

Out To Lunch Friday Playlist

Angry Inch - Sleater-Kinney and Fred Schneider
Age Of Consent - New Order
One Of Our Submarines - Thomas Dolby

P.S. If you're inclined, and didn't see it on the Just Added list earlier this week, check out William S. Burroughs Recites Edgar Allan Poe's The Mask Of The Red Death. Fifteen minutes you will surely not regret.

Afro Blue in Three Playlist

Though popularly associated with (and on some albums even attributed to) John Coltrane, the song Afro Blue was actually composed by the mighty Mongo Santamaria. It appeared on his 1959 Fantasy Records release as a leader, titled Mongo, of all things (present in Rhapsody on the Afro Roots compilation).

My journey back to the blueprint for Afro Blue was sparked by this competent and compelling half-hour live investigation by Gov't Mule and "Friends" [allmusic.com].

So here's all three back-to-back. Three completely different but worthwhile listens.

Afro Blue in Three Playlist - [Rhapsody Online version]

Afro Blue - Mongo Santamaria
Afro Blue - John Coltrane
Afro Blue - Gov't Mule

Last King of Scotland Partial Rssmbld Soundtrack

Better late than never, here's a partial Rssmbld Soundtrack for the Last King of Scotland, the movie that taught us all to think twice before befriending a genocidal madman and sleeping with his wife (among other things, of course). A very fine movie strewn with well-placed musical gems. Here's the bits currently available in Rhapsody.

Last King of Scotland Partial Rssmbld Soundtrack

Toko - Momo Wandel Soumah
Afro Disco Beat - Tony Allen
Grazing In The Grass - Hugh Masakela
Fever - Jingo
Allah Wakban (Love Is You) - Ofo & The Black Company

Mujeres Y Mentiras Sampler Playlist

As the foremost English-language bulwark of banda music fandom, we here at R&S Labs are thrilled to shill the new Banda Jerez release, Mujeres Y Mentiras.

Raucous serpentine horn charts, vocal gymnastics with a freaky nasal twang, coordinated neon outfits, and streets crowded with screaming women. What's not to love?

Note that the band is split over two pages in Rhapsody: one under Banda Jerez, and the other under the more formal La Numero 1 Banda Jerez.

Mujeres Y Mentiras Sampler Playlist

A Medios Chiles
Las Mentiras
Domino

Out To Lunch Friday Playlist

Today out to lunch, it's a yummy Schmaltz Club, spanning the decades to air condition your eardrums as the haze starts to form on the blacktop outside this morning.

And until that hole in the Rhapsody where the Blow Monkeys original should be, we'll be happy with this capable Ivy cover.

In addition to the Feargal Sharkey solo debut, a heaping dollop of albums from his original setting The Undertones came into Rhapsody pretty recently. I'm learning some things in there, starting with the first album.

Out To Lunch Friday Playlist

Trouble - Lindsey Buckingham
Digging Your Scene - Ivy
Skating Away On The Thin Ice Of A New Day - Jethro Tull
A Good Heart - Feargal Sharkey
Sara - Camper Van Beethoven