The Weekend Planet

Sephardic ‘Surf’? This hitherto-unsuspected genre almost fits some of the music on Lucifer: Book of Angels Volume 10. The more extreme end of John Zorn’s wildly eclectic musical world may be ‘hellish’ to some ears, but not so anything here. Zorn’s compositions for Lucifer are immediately-attractive, mostly genial and nigh-irresistible. They also reward close attention. Lucifer is the first new recording in a decade by the Bar Kokhba sextet: violinist Mark Feldman, cellist Erik Friedlander, guitarist Marc Ribot, double bassist Greg Cohen, drummer Joey Baron and percussionist Cyro Baptista.

Zorn is an extraordinarily multi-faceted musician. To discover a little (or a lot) more, begin at this well-linked place:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Zorn

Playlist

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Details of each track are presented in the following order:
BROADCAST TIME
TRACK NUMBER AND TITLE
COMPOSER
PUBLISHING AND COPYRIGHT DETAILS
RECORDING COMPANY AND CD NUMBER
( distributor/ source details, in brackets like this, in lower-case)
ARTIST AND CD TITLE
Duration of track
Description of track, in lower-case.
Where relevant, further info links to information, gigs/events/related programs

’THE WEEKEND PLANET’ SAT 9 .8. 08

2205
THEME:
(details below, as per the original CD.. This cut is also on these compilations Ketama - ’ Nuevos Medios Coleccion’ - Nuevos Medios NM 15 820
{ in Australia via MGM www.thegroovemerchants.com
worldwide, via: www.flamenco-world.com/noticias/nuevos.htm }
and ’ Jarabi - the best of Toumani Diabate’ (Hannibal 334352 )

CD CUT 1, ’JARABI’
TRAD, ARR TOUMANI DIABATE
HAMILCAR MUSIC LTD
HANNIBAL HNCD 1323
( in Australia, some releases through Stomp Enquiries to: ben@stomp.com.au
worldwide: www.rykodisc.com )
KETAMA, TOUMANI DIABATE, DANNY THOMPSON - ’SONGHAI’
THIRTY SECONDS (EXCERPT)
(retains a stately-Manding air, whilst also embracing flamenco elements. Toumani Diabate’s kora, Danny Thompson’s beautiful double bass and Ketama’ s flamenco guitars )

2207
CD CUT 1, ’SOTHER’
JOHN ZORN
(PRESUMABLY) TZADIK
TZADIK TZ 7367
( In Australia, through Birdland www.birdland.com.au
Worldwide: www.tzadik.com )
JOHN ZORN/ BAR KOKHBA - ’LUCIFER’ ( BOOK OF ANGELS VOLUME10: BAR KOKHBA PLAYS MASADA BOOK TWO )
5: 58
( Genially propulsive. Latino, blues-rock, spaghetti-western, Jewish and chamber elements combine into something almost ’Sephardic-surf-music’. Bar Kokhba are Marc Ribot on elec guitar, cellist Erik Friedlander, violinist Mark Feldman, ac bassist Greg Cohen, drummer Joey Baron and percussionist Cyro Baptista. All pieces on this album allude to angels detailed in ancient Hebrew texts.

LIKE TO KNOW ABOUT THE MAN AFTER WHOM THE GROUP IS NAMED? {who died in battle against the Romans, circa 135 C.E.}

Go to:
www.chez.com/barkokhba/masada.htm )

SEGUE

2213
CD CUT 4, ’BEAUTIFUL CITY’ ( KIRYA YEFILIYA )
TRAD, ARR TIM SPARKS
PUB NOT SPEC
TZADIK TZ7160
( In Australia, through Birdland www.birdland.com.au
Worldwide: www.tzadik.com
Tim’s site: www.timsparks.com )
TIM SPARKS - ’AT THE REBBE’S TABLE’
5: 11
(Quite stately, yet mobile instrumental version of a very old Yemenite chant . Sparks’ steel-string ac guitar in duo with Marc Ribot’s nylon-string ac guitar. The city evoked is Jerusalem)

2221
CD CUT 2, ’LALQUIEL
JOHN ZORN
(PRESUMABLY) TZADIK
TZADIK TZ 7367
( In Australia, through Birdland www.birdland.com.au
Worldwide: www.tzadik.com )
JOHN ZORN/ BAR KOKHBA - ’LUCIFER’ ( BOOK OF ANGELS VOLUME10: BAR KOKHBA PLAYS MASADA BOOK TWO )
6: 06
( Same ensemble and general context as @ 2207, above. This is more overtly ’middle-eastern’ and darker, although it owes at least as much to ’Surf guitar’ and to ’spaghetti western soundtrack’ music as it does to anything actually middle eastern

SEGUE

2227
CD CUT 1, ’FALLEN ANGEL’
ROBBIE ROBERTSON AND MARTIN PAGE
MEDICINE HUT MUSIC (ASCAP)
GEFFEN 9 24160-2
ROBBIE ROBERTSON - ’ROBBIE ROBERTSON’
5: 50
(Robbie part-speaks, part-sings and plays elec guitar and some of the electronics. A big-production, atmospheric/anthemic eulogy for his former bandmate, Richard Manuel, who suicided in 1986. The next year Robbie opened his eponymous solo debut disc with this. The hypnotic drumming is by Manu Katché, and the ditto backing vocalist is Peter Gabriel.

LIKE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE DEDICATEE?
( Richard Manuel, 1943-1986 )

Go to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Manuel )

SEGUE

2233
CD CUT 4, ’GEDIEL’
JOHN ZORN
(PRESUMABLY) TZADIK
TZADIK TZ 7367
( In Australia, through Birdland www.birdland.com.au
Worldwide: www.tzadik.com )
JOHN ZORN/ BAR KOKHBA - ’LUCIFER’ ( BOOK OF ANGELS VOLUME10: BAR KOKHBA PLAYS MASADA BOOK TWO )
6: 09
( ensemble and general context as @ 2207, above. This is insistent and decidedly ’surf’-inflected. Lots of string-bending lead guitar from Marc Ribot, with strong drums and percussion {respectively} from Joey Baron and Cyro Baptista, some very nifty lead pizzicato-cello from Friedlander and Feldman’s eastern-tinged violin )

2241
CD CUT 7, ’FALLEN ANGEL’
DON WALKER
SONY ATV MUSIC
WARNER MUSIC 5101137492
( www.warnermusic.com.au )
DON WALKER - ’CUTTING BACK’
5: 30
(AUSTRAL COMP AND PERF: seduction-song - from one damaged survivor to another. Don’s voice and piano, with Jeff Lang’s guitar, Dave Blight’s harmonica and Angus Diggs’ drums. Quasi-dirge, ’blues-balladic, ’live’, with a decidedly ’drunken’ feel )

SEGUE

2246
CD CUT 9, ’ANGEL FROM MONTGOMERY’
JOHN PRINE
WALDEN MJUSIC, INC/ SOUR GRAPES MUSIC, INC (ASCAP)
WARNER BROS 7599-26242-2
BONNIE RAITT - ’THE BONNIE RAITT COLLECTION’
3: 58
(’live’: Bonnie and John sing, with their ac guitars, plus others elec guitar and bass’: acute portrait of an old woman whose dreams have turned to ashes, but who still yearns.

LIKE TO SEE THE LYRIC?

Go to:
www.lyricsfreak.com/j/john+prine/angel+from+montgomery_20074737.html )

2251
CD CUT 1, ’THE FALL OF LUCIFER’
CAMERON UNDY
(PRESUMABLY) APRA
JAZZGROOVE RECORDS JGR013
( available via website: www.jazzgroove.com )
GERARD MASTERS TRIO - ’ISLAND LIFE’
8: 04 ( complete )
(AUSTRAL COMP AND PERF: the leader’s piano, the composer’s bass and drummer Nicholas McBride. Initially dark, then lighter, whilst retaining a light-dark playful/somber duality.

GERARD MASTERS GIG ALERT ( Sydney

Wed August 20 @ The Basement.
Gerard performs a solo piano set as support for The Blaine Whittaker Band
Full details and bookings here:
www.thebasement.com.au )

----
11 PM NEWS
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2305
CD CUT 10, ’ABDIEL’
JOHN ZORN
(PRESUMABLY) TZADIK
TZADIK TZ 7367
( In Australia, through Birdland www.birdland.com.au
Worldwide: www.tzadik.com )
JOHN ZORN/ BAR KOKHBA - ’LUCIFER’ ( BOOK OF ANGELS VOLUME10: BAR KOKHBA PLAYS MASADA BOOK TWO )
3: 24
( see tracknote @ 2207 above for personnel and general context. This is overtly Judaic, turbulent and dramatic. Mark Feldman’s violin stars. According to ancient Jewish texts. Abdiel was one of the seraphim. In Milton’s ’Paradise Lost’’ Abdiel was the key figure in exposing and defeating Lucifer’s revolt against God.

LIKE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT ABDIEL?

Go to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdiel )

2310
CD CUT 11, ’DADDY’S LITTLE SOFT TOP’
SIMON NIELD
APRA
SNO3
( www.simonnield.com )
SIMON NIELD - ’STILL’
3: 06
( AUSTRAL COMP AND PERF: Genial, very funny, nicely-pointed song in which a silly middle-class man exults in his new sports car. He vrooms down Fremantle’s cappuccino strip. The car then proceeds { by it no-longer-proceeding } to humiliate its arrogant owner. Simon makes car-noises, sings and plays v nimble ac guitar, with Andrew Clermont’s zippy mandolin.

LIKE TO KNOW WHEN AND WHERE SIMON NIELD PERFORMS?

Click the ’upcoming gigs ’prompt, here: www.simonnield.com )

SEGUE

2313
CD CUT 5, ’RAHAL’
JOHN ZORN
(PRESUMABLY) TZADIK
TZADIK TZ 7367
( In Australia, through Birdland www.birdland.com.au
Worldwide: www.tzadik.com )
JOHN ZORN/ BAR KOKHBA - ’LUCIFER’ ( BOOK OF ANGELS VOLUME10: BAR KOKHBA PLAYS MASADA BOOK TWO )
3: 46
( see tracknote @ 2207 above for personnel and general context. This is very ’Sephardic surf’- cum-perky-chamber-music’. Nimble and fun )

SEGUE

2317
CD CUT 5, ’YOREH’
JOHN ZORN
TZADIK
TZADIK TZ 7327
( In Australia, through Birdland www.birdland.com.au
Worldwide: www.tzadik.com )
MASADA - ’LIVE IN SEVILLA’
9: 55
(’live’ in Spain in 2000. Begins with horns briefly-in-unison, solemn.. then becomes a brooding-edgy duo exploration for Greg Cohen’s ac bass and Joey Baron’s drums. Then Zorn’s alto sax emerges - initially quite solo and introspective, then quasi-free, very ’vocal’ and angular, with bass and drums. It becomes a fleet, trio chase. Then some probing solo-solo sax, before the arrival of Dave Douglas on trumpet, who follows a similar improvisatory arc. Ends with full band, sombre-but-spiky. Very alert, throughout . ’Early Rain’ is one of the title’s various connotations; it may also refer to particular rituals or rules. This quart plays/improvises upon Zorn’s music, exclusively )

2330
CD CUT 6, ’SHINY RED GUITAR’
SIMON NIELD
APRA
SNO3
( www.simonnield.com )
SIMON NIELD - ’STILL’
2: 58
( AUSTRAL COMP AND PERF: humorous song in which Simon { who’d lampooned the sports-car-fool @ 2310 above} himself admits that:
’I just need that red guitar
To go with my blue one’.
The singer-author is the deft player of the acoustic and elec guitars.

LIKE TO KNOW WHEN AND WHERE SIMON PERFORMS?

Click the ’upcoming gigs ’prompt, here: www.simonnield.com )

SEGUE

2333
CD CUT 8 ’MEHALALEL’
JOHN ZORN
(PRESUMABLY) TZADIK
TZADIK TZ 7367
( In Australia, through Birdland www.birdland.com.au
Worldwide: www.tzadik.com )
JOHN ZORN/ BAR KOKHBA - ’LUCIFER’ ( BOOK OF ANGELS VOLUME10: BAR KOKHBA PLAYS MASADA BOOK TWO )
9:49
( see tracknote @ 2207 above for personnel and general context. This is the ’biggest’ and most dramatic piece on the disc, with some spectacular playing all-round. It is named for an Old Testament/Talmud figure who was Methusalah’s great-grandfather. Mehalalel allegedly lived 895 years )

2345
CD CUT 6, ’KELPA SANGSONG’
JIGME NAMGYAL OR CO-AUTHORED BY HIM AND TENZIN NAMGYAL
NO CATALOGUE NUMBER
(self-issued.
Wesbite: www.go.to/tibetsingerjigme
Email: tibetsinger@hotmail.com )
JIGME NAMGYAL (LHASAWA) - ’TUNES OF TIBET VOL -01’
5: 15
(AUSTRAL COMP AND PERF: Tibetan: lyrical, slow sing-songy Tibetan song which celebrates the harvest, prays for more of the same and asks for blessing on all the world’s peasants. Jigme’s male Tibetan voice w twangy banjo-like lute, harmonica, ac guitar. He now lives in or near Adelaide)

TIBETAN MUSIC ON RADIO NATIONAL: DOCUMENTARY-FEATURE ALERT

On ’Into the Music’ Saturday 16 August @ 5.05pm
Repeated on Friday 22 August @ 3.05pm

The Song Catchers - Recording the Disappearing Songs of Tibet

A fascinating, heart-warming feature, recorded in China. Plateau Music is a project to record and preserve the traditional songs of Tibet. They are beautiful, already rare and could vanish. With modernisation songs for building traditional houses and milking songs are fading from collective memory. Tibetan students learning English from Australian ethno-musicologist Gerald Roche at Qinhai Normal University, Xining, in China’s far north-west search far and wide in villages and towns to record those who remember these songs. The traditional music is being digitised into an archive. To help keep the music alive the students also transcribe the lyrics and even post performance-videos on the internet.

Producer Elise Potaka
Mixing engineer Louis Mitchell
Executive producer Robyn Ravlich

To discover more about the Plateau Music project { and to see/hear some of what it has recorded } go to these sites:

www.plateaumusicproject.org
www.youtube.com/user/TibetanMusicProject
www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVzPXMZVkNo

AND (IN THE SAME EDITION OF 'INTO THE MUSIC')

The Gyuto Monks of Tibet: If we choose, we are like a lotus

Tibetan music has a folk tradition and a monastic tradition. This musical feature captures the unique harmonic chanting of the Gyuto Monks who have been coming to Australia annually since 1994 to spread awareness of Tibetan culture. Great Chantmaster of Gyuto Tantric University, Lobsang Tsering provides a step-by-step guide to the process of visualizations followed by these masters of Tibetan Buddhist tantric ritual during their famous harmonic chanting.
A feature by Sherre DeLys

’Into The Music’, with Robyn Johnston
First broadcast: Saturday, 5.05 pm
Repeat broadcast: the following Friday, 3.05 pm
www.abc.net.au/rn/intothemusic
Audio can be demanded from website for four weeks after radio broadcast )

SEGUE

2350
CD CUT 5: ’ANGEL’ ( FINAL PART OF ’ANGEL SUITE IN D’ )
JOSEPH TAWADROS
(PRESUMABLY) APRA
JT 2008-03-19
( in Australia through Creative Vibes www.cvibes.com
Worldwide: www.josephtwaadros.com )
JOSEPH TAWADROS - ’ANGEL’
5: 28
(AUSTRAL COMP AND PERF: The piece relates to these words, written by Mary Baker Eddy: ’when angels visit us, we do not hear the rustle of wings, nor feel the feathery touch of the breast of a dove; but we know their presence by the love they create in our hearts.’
.A 5-part suite for Joseph’s oud {fretless Arabic lute}, James Tawadros {his younger brother} on bendir {frame drum}, pianist Matt McMahon and clarinettist Dimitri Vouras Has obviously-Arabic elements, but not those-only. Variously lively and meditative -predominantly, the latter.

JOSEPH TAWADROS QUARTET CONCERT ALERT ( Sydney )

Tuesday August 26th, @ 8pm
St Stephen’s Church
189 Church St, Newtown
Bookings: joe@josephtawadros.com )
The quartet is as per ’Ángel’

LIKE TO KNOW ABOUT MARY BAKER EDDY ( 1821 - 1910 )?
She is famous/infamous for something other than the quote to which Joseph’s CD relates.

Go to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Baker_Eddy )

2358
CD CUT 5, ’STEPS’
GUY STRAZZ ( AKA GUY STRAZZULLO )
BMG MUSIC PUBLISHING
BIRDLAND RECORDS BL019
( www.birdland.com.au
Birdland label releases also available through www.cvibes.com )
MATT MCMAHON AND GUY STRAZZ - ’2 @ 1’
1: 20 ( excerpt )
(AUSTRAL COMP AND PERF: nimble, lyrical, intimate duet for Guy’s ac guitar and Matt’s piano

MATT MCMAHON AND GUY STRAZZ DUO GIG ALERT ( Melbourne )

Saturday August 10 @ 8.30 pm
CD launch concert @ Bennetts Lane Jazz Club, 25 Bennetts Lane
www.bennettslane.com

YOU MISSED ’THE DAILY PLANET’ ON WED AUGUST 6?

It revolved around this album.
Its audio lives on!
So - within two weeks of August 6 - you can still hear it, here:
www.abc.net.au/rn/dailyplanet )

Presenter

Doug Spencer

Producer

Doug Spencer