Five Things I Saw & Heard This Week
Transcripts from the everyday world of music by Martin Colyer
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Norah Jones has always had a left-field ear for cover versions and a few weeks ago I caught her Live at Ronnie Scott’s DVD on Sky Arts. It’s a trio show from 2018 with drummer Brian Blade and bassist Christopher Thomas. The bond between them is fantastic — a limitless number of smiles pass as they dig into a great selection of songs with lightly-worn virtuosity. It kicks off with a brilliant cover of Neil Young’s heavily autobiographical song, “Don’t Be Denied”, which I’d assumed was un-coverable (if such a word exists). Catch it if you can…
As always I was delighted to find your latest message in my Mail Inbox today. Great anecdotes, observations and more music to listen to via the excellent Internet FM Archive. I seem to remember hearing some of these concerts via ‘Wolfgang’s Vault’, an earlier online iteration of classic concert recordings. Hope to hear from you again soon, Martin.
Yes, I’d noticed that, Steve. WV still goes on, but I think the FM archive probably gets around the WV copyright as these were all broadcast free-to-air originally… And I’m working on a more regular delivery!
Another great post, Martin. I particularly loved the James Jamerson baseline visualisation, which highlighted how brilliant he was at discreetly adding variety into his playing. While you are on a FM radio listening jag, if you haven’t already heard them check out the Joni Mitchell Hissing of Summer Lawns demos on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwyABuaTnyQ&list=PLZVCiDcSBlcgecpf6lgjyndbIJ6Pusnuj
I remember listening to the demos a while ago, but will check them out again. Have you heard the Springsteen/Obama Podcast yet? There’s a bit where they both sing Joni’s “Help Me” — Obama better than Bruce!