Reasonable Tidbits

"The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend" - Robertson Davies

And since I've always been a fan of chiasmus, "...act like a man of thought and think like a man of action" - Henri Bergson

Marcel The Shell with Shoes On

Happy New Year!

This will make you smile (not a typical post for me).

Marcel's been around a while, but he seems to be more and more popular lately, like the year when ironic, spastic, bizarre t.v. commercials became accepted as "oddvertizing".  Like that but way more clever and adorable. The voice makes it, as does the quixotic dialogue, all provided by Jenny Slate with husband Dean Fleischer-Camp.  Enjoy!

El Apogeo de Fania

Israel "Cachao" Lopez

Who is Cachao?

Israel "Cachao" Lopez is often lauded as the creator of Mambo, which then led to the advent of Salsa music. More broadly, he is respected as the greatest bassist in modern Cuban musical history.  Over six decades his innovations on the instrument and his participation in countless groups have made him a giant who has spread the Cuban sound out of the Caribbean and into the mainstream.

I came upon Cachao and his musical legacy via the actor (and avid percussionist) Andy Garcia in a documentary entitled Cachao: Uno Más, currently on PBS's American Masters. Discussed in the film, the recording above is a version of Lopez's seminal cut called "Chanchullo", originally titled "Rareza de Melitón" in 1937,  and clearly the source for Tito Puente's "Oye Como Va" later popularized by Carlos Santana. Below is the film's synapsis from PBS:

The Grammy-winning bassist Israel “Cachao” Lopez died in Coral Gables, Florida in March 2008, almost 90-years old. A maestro of legendary status on the world stage and ultimately considered one of the greatest Afro-Cuban musicians of all time, he had made his home in the United States for the past four decades. Coming from a family of classical musicians, he had formal conservatory training and held a seat in the Havana Philharmonic Orchestra for 30 years, performing under the direction of all of the legendary international conductors of the time – beginning at age 10! American Masters pays tribute to the Father of Mambo in the series’ bilingual film, Cachao: Uno Más premiering Monday, September 20, 2010... The film is produced, narrated and illuminated by the actor Andy Garcia, a close friend and ardent fan, who helped re-establish Cachao’s career in the ‘90s. Among the film’s many treats is Garcia playing the bongos with Cachao.

Here's one of Cachao's first American releases--can't wait to hear it!

Paco de Lucía

 1947-2014

Academy Awards Contest ~ Take 5

Okeh, let's go people.  It's Oscar contest time again.  Copy the entire ballot into a comment and erase all but your pick for each category.  I'll count 'em up and we'll see who reigns supreme!

Best Picture
12 Years a Slave
American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Dallas Buyers Club
Gravity
Her
Nebraska
Philomena
The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Actor
Christian Bale (American Hustle)
Bruce Dern (Nebraska)
Leonardo DiCaprio (Wolf of Wall Street)
Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave)
Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)

Best Actress
Amy Adams (American Hustle)
Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)
Sandra Bullock (Gravity)
Judi Dench (Philomena)
Meryl Streep (August: Osage County)

Best Supporting Actor
Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips)
Bradley Cooper (American Hustle)
Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave)
Jonah Hill (Wolf of Wall Street)
Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)

Best Supporting Actress
Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle)
Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years a Slave)
Julia Roberts (August: Osage County)
June Squibb (Nebraska)
Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine)

Best Director
Martin Scorsese (The Wolf of Wall Street)
David O. Russell (American Hustle)
Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity)
Alexander Payne (Nebraska)
Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave)

Best Adapted Screenplay
John Ridley (12 Years a Slave)

Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater (Before Midnight
)
Terence Winter (The Wolf of Wall Street
)
Billy Ray (Captain Phillips)

Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope (Philomena)

Best Original Screenplay
David O. Russell and Eric Singer (American Hustle)
Bob Nelson (Nebraska)
Spike Jonze (Her)
Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack (Dallas Buyers Club)
Woody Allen (Blue Jasmine)

Best Foreign Film
Denmark, The Hunt
Belgium, The Broken Circle Breakdown
Italy, The Great Beauty
Palestine, Omar
Cambodia, The Missing Picture

Best Documentary Feature
20 Feet from Stardom
The Act of Killing
Dirty Wars
The Square
Cutie and the Boxer

Best Animated Feature
The Wind Rises
Frozen
Despicable Me 2
The Croods
Ernest & Celestine

Film Editing
American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Dallas Buyers Club
Gravity
12 Years a Slave

Best Song
"Alone Yet Not Alone" (Alone Yet Not Alone)
"Happy" (Despicable Me 2)
"Let It Go" (Frozen)
"The Moon Song" (Her)
"Ordinary Love" (Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom)

Best Original Score
John Williams (The Book Thief)
Steven Price (Gravity)
Alexandre Desplat (Philomena)
Thomas Newman (Saving Mr. Banks)
William Butler and Owen Pallett (Her)

Best Cinematography
Philippe Le Sourd (The Grandmaster)
Emmanuel Lubezki (Gravity)
Bruno Delbonnel (Inside Llewyn Davis)
Roger Deakins (Prisoners)
Phedon Papamichael (Nebraska)

Costume Design
American Hustle
The Grandmaster
The Great Gatsby
The Invisible Woman
12 Years A Slave

Visual Effects
Gravity
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Iron Man 3
The Lone Ranger
Star Trek Into Darkness

Short Film, Live Action
Aquel No Era Yo (That Wasn't Me)
Avant Que De Tout Perdre (Just Before Losing Everything)
Helium
Pitääkö Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?)
The Voorman Problem

Short Film, Animated
Feral
Get a Horse!
Mr. Hublot
Possessions
Room on the Broom

Documentary Short Subject
CaveDigger
Facing Fear
Karama Has No Walls
The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life
Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall

Best Perm and/or Comb-over

Best Dental Implants

Even More Selected Podcasts

Some time ago I put together a short list of worthwhile podcasts. Here are a few more to keep that list going.   Try these out on a walk or a commute or wherever you want to engage your imagination and/or be inspired.

UnFictional - KCRW puts together compelling stories from the Independent Producer Project, a great way to hear perspectives from storytellers who might not cut through the greater internet din. Here's a start for you: the tale of Nature Boy, a.k.a. eden ahbez, a California ascetic whose spiritual journey was a precursor to West Coast "hippie" culture.

RTÉ Radio 1 - This is not where I originally heard the story of a German paraglider who was hopelessly ensnared by an Australian thunderhead during competition, but if that gripping survival story is any indication, the Irish radio giant has plenty more quality pieces to discover.

Smithsonian Folkways: Sounds to Grow On - An interest in field recordings and American roots music led me to this set of programs, chock full of rare Folkways Records treasures presented by the son of Moses Asch, the label's founder.

The whole collection is illuminated by the historical insights provided by Michael Asch & folklorists making these a pleasure to delve into. The episode titled Talking About the Blues exemplifies the depth of the music and cultural context found throughout the series (above, Big Bill Broonzy, one of my favorites).

Judge John Hodgman - The comedian/writer host is a middle-aged eccentric with a lush mustache and a distinctive worldview.  If you can handle a fair dose of hipster geekery, try out one of these entertaining mock trials based on:

"real life disputes on issues such as: 

-is chili a soup or a stew? 

-is this room in my house called an “office” or a “den” or “a room full of junk.” 

-when is it may someone else’s Chinese food be legally considered abandoned property?  

-is it OK to rifle through the trash for prize coupons in a Canadian pizza parlor? 

-is a machine gun a robot?  

Then I tell the disputants who is right and who is wrong." 

It's good fun (if not Maximum Fun) but be prepared to suffer through some adolescent cackling.  You do it for Click and Clack, don't you?

A little more about J. Hodgman from the multi-talented Steven Weinberg via Brooklyn Based

Enjoy...and tell me: What podcasts are you enjoying lately?

Service

Levon Helm

This post started last year as a remembrance of the late Levon Helm (1940-2012).  After this long, though, I'll let the music talk. With fall settling on the South, this tune venerates the farmer and connects us to his/her plight, still.

A sense of Helms' legacy here

Last year's obit. here

More Amazigh Kateb

Like that?  Here's more.

ⵜⵏⵔⵓⵏ Tinariwen: Making of 'Tassili'

With the prospect of finally seeing Tinariwen, a Touareg group out of Northern Mali, I went sifting and found this beguiling documentary short which features the band, 'in situ', laying down tracks amidst the wind and sand and crackling fire of Tassili n'Ajjer located in southeast Algeria.

The album, called simply Tassili, promises to entrance listeners as ever, although this time leaning more heavily on acoustic instruments rather than the electrified mesmerizations of the group's past projects.  Take a moment to drift with Tinariwen.

For the observant, the guys in this video "thumbnail" are Kyp Malone and Tunde Adebimpe of the American indie rock band TV On The Radio who decided to make the trip over for some desert collaborations on a handful of tunes.

Tinariwen - official website

Tassili - more on this wind-sculpted region, like an Arches or a Zion N.P. of North Africa.  Actually, it turns out, because of its amazing rock formations and abundant cave paintings, Tassili is a national park, too!

Seu Jorge: Charm over Virtuosity

By now, if you've seen Cidade de Deus, or Wes Anderson's eclectically stylish The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, you know about Seu Jorge. He's a tall, handsome fella from Rio de Janeiro, and he's become a superstar of their burgeoning pop culture.

As an actor, he's entirely believable in almost all that he does.  He's got charm and an easy going yet intense nature that lends itself to film.  In Cidade de Deus (City of God) he plays Mané Galinha (or "Knockout Ned") a favela strutter who's pretty much got it all together amidst the heady drug running and gunning, unfortunately so emblematic of modern Rio.  Seu Jorge plays the character with poise and grace, going far beyond the narrative to further draw the audience into a tumultuous but exhilarating world.

A lovely "caricature" by Blake Loosli (a.k.a. Infernovball) on deviantart.com 

Jorge plays the cool, reserved mate, "Pelé dos Santos", most effortlessly in The Life Aquatic despite a nearly line-free character other than his set of David Bowie covers sung in Portuguese.  Shamefully, my Bowie knowledge isn't deep enough to truly enjoy the lyrics in Portuguese, but the aura he puts off for the ship's crew, adrift at sea aboard the research vessel Belafonte, is especially intoxicating -- a star quality even in a tiny supporting role.

For all this talk of his acting talents, Seu Jorge's (born Jorge Mário da Silva in 1970) growing fame also stems from his music and his role in the re-invigoration of samba.  It seems that this part of Brazilian culture pulses through him with an immutable rhythm.  Jorge carries the baton with guitar, cavaquinho, cuíca, pandeiro, ganzá --just a handful of the brigade of samba instruments.  He is a revivalist and an experimentalist, a living folk hero who mixes influences (like muddling a giant "genre caipirinha") while emulating the masters like Cartola, Zeca Pagodinho, Chico Buarque, Mestre Marçal, João da Baiana, and so many more worth digging up.  Listen to Nelson Cavaquinho for some perspective, then try Seu Jorge's version with psyche rock trio Almaz  :

My first inclination was to rail on Seu Jorge for what seems like a lack of intonation in his singing and a consistent o.d. of drama in his delivery, but after seeking out some background, I realize that this may be his goal: samba is not a strict form, but rather one that encourages improvisation and giant doses of personality all smothered in unflappable joy.  That affable charisma, Seu Jorge has in unending quantities, like an infinite plateau of sugarcane all growing at least a story high.

Juízo Final

Composição: Élcio Soares / Nelson Cavaquinho

O sol....há de brilhar mais uma vez
A luz....há de chegar aos corações
Do mal....será queimada a semente

O amor...será eterno novamente
É o Juízo Final, a história do bem e do mal
Quero ter olhos pra ver, a maldade desaparecer

O amor...será eterno novamente

O amor...será eterno novamente

 

This version of the classic samba "Juízo Final" is mighty listenable, probably owing to the strangely haunting melody, but the Almaz rhythm section adds plenty, down to the last beats which nearly conjure up James Brown's notorious "Funky Drummer".

His pride as a Carioca (anyone from Rio) in Brazil and internationally is evident in his every appearance on stage.  As a samba vocalist, he's carrying on a tradition in a legendary fashion; decades from now, he'll be at the top of a short list of influential Brazilian artists and culture-makers.  In fact, he's already there.  With trends (for the most part) heading toward the constantly current yet consistently disposable, Seu Jorge makes his countrymen and connoisseurs take notice not with glitz but with a profound respect for the tenets of Brazilian culture: comunidade, orgulho, amizade, beleza, jóia!

Seu Jorge & Almaz - the official site
Interview - a nice piece by Kamille Viola for SoundandColours.com
Mais filmes - complete filmography at IMDB.com

America ReCycled: Pedaling with Purpose

Brothers can have a rare bond, and the Brothers Hussin are no exception with their creative, two-wheeled endeavor to traverse our great nation in an effort to explore and "restore local culture".  I learned about the America ReCycled project via Tim Hussin's excellent photo blog titled Meanderings.  His work caught my eye for its clarity and a sense of objectivity.  The images read like documents, demonstrative yet intriguing, deftly capturing time and space and sentiment. 

Some road gear via thussin.blogspot.com

As for the continental bike trip, Tim and Noah Hussin used Kickstarter.com to gear up for the expedition, and they've been writing and filming the adventure with regular, extensive updates posted to AmericaReCycled.org via their solar-powered laptop. The timeline is a bit fuzzy, but their fundraising "mission statement" indicates plans for posts from the road (many interesting reports are up already), film segments, and later on a book and a feature-length documentary.  According to the site:

All across the country, people are finding innovative ways to come together and make revolutionary change on a local level, to regain control of their lives, rediscover independence, and recycle the American Dream.

Follow along on their journey.  These guys have an eye for ecclectic, innovative living, and they capture it all expertly (looks like in HD).  So far, the project, which documents unique communities, is really worth watching as the brothers reveal, essentially, our own American backyard.

AmericaReCycled - the project site with the first slick video segments!
Meanderings - Tim Hussin's photo blog

المغرب العربي | Amazigh Kateb

With so much tumult in the Mahgrib of late, Africa's crown of arid nations seems a land rife with struggle and grief.  Be that as it may, there have been victories and progress in places like Tunisia, and in Morocco leaders have managed to avert public discontent through stable governance.  Despite all this, I have a sense that the peoples of the vast Sahara's borders are resilient and joyful in the face of all the changes.

In terms of music, I've always been enamored with the mystical sounds of this much romanticized region.  The sand and the wind seem to permeate the textured voices of Tuareg singers telling stories of ancient oases and modern lives amidst the harsh landscape. Instruments like the gimbri and rabab with their droning strings add to the magic of crackling cold evening air after the sweltering heat of day has subsided.

Odd (but not that odd) to see a banjo amongst the legendary Nass El Ghiwane

When these sounds migrate to Europe and beyond, the qualities that define the old ceremonies and celebrations have been transmuted and fused with modern beats from the African Diaspora.  There is no better example of this thrilling mixture than the music of Amazigh Kateb, the son of the Algerian literary great Kateb Yacine who said that revolutionary writing "must transmit a living message, placing the public at the heart of a theater that partakes of the neverending combat opposing the proletariat to the bourgeoisie". Although my French is essentially non-existent, I gather that Amazigh Kateb uses his music in this same tradition to give a voice to the agents of political change.

Making some kids smile with Gnawa Diffusion

I came to discover Amazigh -- whose name means "free man" in Tamazight -- via his now defunct band called Gnawa Diffusion, which specialized in blending the varied musical ingredients of Northwest Africa with reggae, funk, and hip-hop.  Based out of Grenoble, France at the turn of the century, the Gnawa Diffusion mix is infectious and I can't seem to devote my full attention to much other music right now when the earbuds are in! Author Radu at BABE(B)LOGUE explains the roots of the band's name:

The group's name is a reference to the Gnawa, a tribe from Western Sudan who were deported to North Africa in the 16th century by the rulers of Fes and Algiers. While the Gnawa were officially converted to Islam by their new masters, they continued to worship their own African gods in private. The way Gnawa Diffusion see it, this historic tale of people uprooted from their homeland and forced to begin a new life in a foreign land, is remarkably similar to the lives of modern-day immigrants growing up in France.

Beyond hyper-relevant themes like immigration and equal rights, Amazigh's music is rhythmic, exotic yet accesible, and, as I've found, absolutely habit-forming, or at least that's been my case with the Gnawa Diffusion album titled Algeria (thanks, DCT!).  Now that I'm hooked, I hope it's just the first step in long march of exploration into this region's music and all the cultural exchange that goes on in France. 

Find out more about Amazigh, Yancine Kateb, and Gnawa Diffusion:

Listen - hear Gnawa Diffusion and check out the discography
Listen - of course, Gnawa Diffusion on Myspace
Listen - interviews and music on Babel Cafe radio (sorry, Français only)
Read - a fine interview with Amazigh by Fayçal Chehat
Read - the entire Gnawa post by Radu at BABE(B)LOGUE
Watch -  Amazigh Kateb & Safwane Kenani in a "green room" maybe
Explore - Amazigh Kateb's official site

Portlandia: Smart, Funny, Timely TV

Portland map art via chemofski

This new series on IFC was featured at the close of NPR's Morning Edition. It seems like NPR is sort of the "exposure machine" to rival the Kodak Brownie in its day. Fred Armisen (of Saturday Night Live fame) and Carrie Brownstein (of the band Sleater-Kinney and an NPR alumna) riff on what it means to be a Portlander, with all the granola pride and flakey-punk goodness that entails.

This is the kind of comedy that we could use a little more of in the mainstream. Enjoy!

Have you ever been engaged in one of these "one-upsman" kind of conversations about art or books or music? I absolutely love how they literally devour the written word at the end. IFC's Portlandia is a spin-off of a shorts project found at THUNDERANT. Another irrevrent segment, "Dream of the 90's" is hilarious, too, in a Flight of The Conchords vein -- check it!

Basquiat & Os Gemeos | Banksy & Guetta

Street art is not what it used to be.

portrait of Jean Michel Basquiat by Warhol

Grafitti: unappreciated by the masses, produced by so-called "street urchins", miscreants and punks, disdained by the authorities, loathed by real estate agents. It still exists in this form. Just look around on the train, the warehouse, the stop sign; what's in that kid's backpack anyway, and why is he running? Maybe you should get a phone number, then give the kid some time to get famous.

A Basquiat sold by Phillips de Pury & Company:

a song at $4, 562, 500 US

Today, Os Gemeos of Sao Paulo, Brasil, lead the new guard of street artists turned gallery darlings. Count the late Jean Michel Basquiat (a.k.a Samo) as one of the first to make the lucrative transition, however deadly that shift may have been for him.

 Os Gemeos work on the street in Sao Paulo: Dailyserving.com

Now Banksy, the subversive street artist, lampoons the entire affair in a new film called Exit Through The Gift Shop. The film details the travails and artwork of one Thierry Guetta, a Frenchman of substantial eccentricity and at least some talent.

a more literal work by London-based Banksy

In the vein of many 'mockumentaries', it's hard to tell the real from the invented in Guetta's story (essentially the story of Guetta filming Banksy at work on the street). Is the film a document of Guetta's rise in the fine art circles or is it an intricate fabrication meant as hype, at once skewering the highbrow collectors and bandwagon trend-surfers? It's hardly a risky game for Guetta whose work is somewhat derivative anyway -- he rips off Warhol without shame and splashes paint around like Pollock. At the hands of Banksy, established cynic of the pavements, he's in for a catapult ride into the stratosphere of high-art superstardom, earned or not.

Guetta's "Le Bistro" signed by Mr. Brainwash, an alias: ukstreetart.co.uk

In any case, Exit Through The Gift Shop is supposed to be a visual treat. So we'll see: who's famous, who gets famous, or who's a famous fake.

The trailer - banksyfilm.com
Guetta's purposely confusing site - mrbrainwash.com
Here's Banksy! - banksy.co.uk
outlines the film's conjured "controversy" - markphilipvenema.worpress.com
a review - slugmag.com
another Basquiat painting (just because) - markphilipvenema.wordpress.com

"Shake it to the Left; shake it to the Right!"

The System comic from notquitewrong.com

Now from a 2004 interview with Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air :

"The only thing I like about the Left versus the Right is that the Left seems to care more about people, and the Right seems to care more about property, as a generalization." -- George Carlin

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan ~ Shahen-shah-e-Qawwāli

On the 13th anniversary of his death, it is with great reverence that I memorialize one of the most significant traditional musicians on modern record. He was the shining star of a six centuries old line of mystic Sufi devotees who, to this day, comunally worship Allah through ecstatic musical flights during marathon sessions. He was Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (1948 -1997), a Qawwāli master, among the most gifted vocalists ever to sing the sacred poetry of Islam.

Cover of his 1st international release on the Real World label: Shahen-shah

photo courtesy of Bluesmen's World (Music)

According to his biography, the young Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (نصرت فتح على خاں) aimed to become a "doctor or an engineer" but soon after showed a fledgling interest in the family business of Qawwāli and began his subsequent tutelage under first his father, studying tabla, and then his uncles Mubarak Ali Khan and Ustad Salamat Ali Khan.

The young Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's rise to greatness was rapid and steady, starting with his first performance, called chehlum in Urdu, forty days after his father's death. Decades of performance followed starting with a broadcast on Radio Pakistan in 1971 known as Jashn-e-Baharan, his first as the leader of his family's Qawwāli "party", featuring devotional singing "mainly in Urdu and Punjabi and occasionally in Persian, Brajbhasha and Hindi."

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's first performance outside Pakistan

Beyond traditional Qawwāli performances in the company of his "party", Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan gave his ancestral form of devotional music a brand new face through various successful collaborations with Western artists and other musical masters of the sub-continent.

One of the most recognizable contributions for Western audiences is his duet with Eddie Vedder for the Dead Man Walking film soundtrack. Vedder's unmistakable, grimaced croon is paired with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's soaring, airy tones, the ethereal tambre of which carry the compostion to a spiritual plane. The two voices, the anthemic power of Pearl Jam's frontman and the veteran Qawwali's controlled rising and falling, together create a texture that seems chiseled of the same ancient stone. As it fades into the landscape of the film's narrative, the track titled "The Face of Love" transcends any moral implication and becomes itself an effortless message of multicultural harmony. It is but one example of Nursat Fateh Ali Khan's absolute commitment to promulgating Qawwali music as classically-honed forms joined modern media.

photo credit: Tim Hall of Redferns Music Picture Library via bbc.co.uk

 

Today, the Qawwāli tradition continues in Pakistan and around the world, thanks to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's great genius and pioneering perserverance. His nephews Rizwan and Muazzam Ali Khan have their own party as does the reknowned Ustad Rahat Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. These practicing Qawwāli also do not shy from collaboration with Western artists.

Fortunately for us, a grand legacy of Qawwāli expertise has been left to enjoy. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's body of work is vast and much of it is still available for purchase. However, one need not search far for examples of this modern master's unequalled talent, and his unadulterated devotion to Allah as well as to his people's singular musical traditional. This is Qawwāli!

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan introduces a "qual" called "Man Kunto Maula"

"The Spirit of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan" - interview by Andy Carvin
Nusrat.org - comprehensive tribute site
Live Performance - a "qual" titled "Ah Jaa Tenu Akhiyan Udeek Diyan" with Englsih subtitles
Nusrat.info - many, many music samples, translated lyrics and more
"NFAK: How the World Discovered Qawwali" - nice article with many links
Sufi Kalam - article about NFAK's biography by Dr. Pierre-alain Baud

Chucho Valdés: 'El Maestro' del Jazz Cubano

From my bootleg vault, here's a live selection recorded at an inspiring concert in Marquette, MI in the Winter of 2003. The legendary Cuban pianist Jesus "Chucho" Valdés leads a group of young jazz players whose ages perhaps just add up to that of Sr. Valdes at the time.

Chucho Valdes --2-- Live by afctank

El Maestro's work can be found in so many manifestations from his recent recordings with his father Bebo Valdés all the way back to the groundbreaking Afro-Cuban jazz project with the supergroup he helped form in 1972, Irakere.

From the abridged Irakere discography by Wilson & Alroy's Record Reviews:

In 1979, members included Jesús "Chucho" Valdés, piano; Enrique Plá, drums; Carlos Emilio Morales, guitar; Paquito D'Rivera, clarinet and sax; Arturo Sandoval, trumpet; Carlos Del Puerto, bass; Oscar Valdés, vocals and percussion; Carlos Averhoff, flute and sax; Jorge Varona, trumpet; Jorge Alfonso and Armando Cuervo, percussion. D'Rivera and Sandoval left 1980; José Luis Cortés joined.

Various laudatory comments for Irakere on FlyGlobalMusic:

“One of the finest jazz ensembles in the world” LA Times

“One of the best big bands in the world” Itunes

“Among Cuba’s most influential bands” Discogs

“Chucho Valdes is the greatest jazz pianist in Cuba, perhaps one of the greatest pianists in the world” Time Magazine

“Arturo Sandoval is arguably the most prodigious trumpeter of his generation” The Guardian

Remember Harvey Pekar

photo credit: RhymesWithChoice

The Original (Goodbye Splendor) by Anthony Bourdain ~

Still stubbornly latched on the fringe himself, Bourdain eulogizes Cleveland's underground comic book legend, jazz writer, & blue-collar cultural icon, Harvey Pekar.

image courtesy of Ben Temple Smith

Fresh Air from WHYY ~ Terry Gross and the crew pay tribute to the late Pekar in various interviews, one with wife Joyce Brabner, from 2003 and 2005.

Unmistakable authenticity and an unpretentious demeanor contradict his own self-criticism. While before him Kerouac and Warhol pranced, showered in compliments, this fella trudged the daily path of an artful life, like living the best runs of an inspired improvisation in between all the pops and scratches in the cut.

"Everybody's like everybody else, and everybody's different from everybody else." ~ Harvey Pekar