A Hard Rain

New Music Friday: Not much on the horizon - a single by Damian Jurado, some archival Sun Ra material (cool, but nothing new), some new releases on Zorn's Tzadik label (dependably excellent as always but not unexpected).

Not much on the horizon . . . except this - possibly the best thing I've heard all year. Bob Dylan's A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall, arranged by the Red Hot Organization and the Kronos Quartet, featuring Laurie Anderson (synthesizer and violin), Elia Einhorn (harmonium), Shahzad Ismaily (synths), and Suhail Yusuf Khan (sarangi), with the Hard Rain Singers (Anjali Rose, Elenna Canlas, Taraka Larson, Lollise, Mayteana Morales, and Hannah Winkler).  The featured vocals, though, listed as "readers" in the credits, are Ocean Vuong, Sampa The Great, Dai Wei, Sleaford Mods, Nadya Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot, Satomi Matsuzaki, Iggy Pop, Tom Morello, Stephin Merritt, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Willie Nelson, Laurie Anderson, Mahsa Vahdat, somebody called "Fenway," and, oh yes, Ringo Starr.

Hard Rain has always hit hard, but this reading is simultaneously beautiful and off the charts terrifying.  

The track was released with another excellent version of Hard Rain (although not as hard-hitting as this one) and a Terry Riley raga as the B-side. It's unclear if the next major release by the Red Hot Organization is going to be all covers of Bob Dylan songs (if so, why the Terry Riley raga) or anti-nuclear war material, neither of the above, or all of the above. 

We'll have to wait with our ears open and meanwhile enjoy this terrific, creative performance. 

Jonathan Richman

At 74 years old, Jonathan Richman may not be quite Marshall Allen (101) old yet, but no one's going to mistake him for a Jonas brother. Yet despite his age and his long, long discography, he's still writing and performing new music and has just released a new album, Only Frozen Sky Anyway, which dropped on the Fourth of July (i.e., yesterday). Here's standout track, But We May Try Weird Stuff, to let you know Richman still hasn't lost his characteristic quirk or odd-ball sense of humor, even as his music continues to evolve.    

Jefferson's Brew

Not to be totally random, but if you ever wondered what a vocal version of Bitches Brew might sound like, Eddie Jefferson gave us the answer in 1974. 

Jefferson was shot and killed outside of Baker's Keyboard Lounge on May 8, 1979. He had left the club with alto sax player Richie Cole around 1:35 a.m. and was shot as he walked out of the building. Detroit was a tough town then. Impermanence is swift.

Šumavský jam

Although not often documented here, I continue to regularly fall down various musical rabbit holes. Today's was post-Cold War Czech ambient, a genre I didn't even know existed until I stumbled across an NTS playlist titled Tearoom Ambient, the name music journalist Pavel Klusák gave to the 1990s movement.

Jaroslav Kořán is an artist from Prague who works in the field of music and sounds, video, photography, and graphics. His technique features improvisation, controlled chance, and the use of unusual materials and techniques. Šumavský jam is a spontaneous improvisation recorded in 2012 by Jaroslav and his brother Michal, a longtime collaborator. Lest one think the title is a Czech version of Animal Collective's Strawberry Jam, Šumavský refers to Šumava, or "Bohemian Forest," the wooded mountain range that extends from Germany into the Czech Republic. 

Part One, above, is an excerpt of the complete performance, and the whole piece (54 minutes) is available without interruptions or edits on Spotify. 

Happy Birthday, Marshall Allen

Marshall Allen turns 101 years old today. For-real 101, not some Sun Ra-Solar Myth-made-up 101 years. One hundred  and one Earth revolutions around the Sun. Born in 1924, he just dropped this live album last week. So okay, he was "only" 100 when it was recorded, and okay, the drummer and bassist are younger than him, but that's Allen tearing it up on sax and that weird electronic wind instrument he sometimes plays, and bassist James McNew of Yo La Tengo may be called a lot of things, but nobody's called him "young" since the 1980s. 

Marshall Allen's Ghost Horizons Live in Philadelphia is a terrific album, maybe one of the best of Allen's long career and right up there with the best of the best of his Sun Ra sets. Go out and but it right now.  

Back in the There and Then

Horace Silver's 1972 album, Total Response, included a track, Old Mother Nature Calls, that sounds like something RFK, Jr. might agree with today (please don't share this track with him). One reviewer called the album a "sprawling, incoherent, and just plain weird mess of funk, fusion, soul-jazz, African spirituality, and hippie mysticism."

My point is that even 53 years ago, we were aware of the problems with ultra-processed food, additives, and pesticides. It's hippie bullshit but it's true. 

Our water isn't pure

When fluoride we endure.

The air we breathe so free

Is treated chemically.

The food we eat today

Is filled with toxic spray.

The hormones that they add

Will slowly drive you mad.

The natural foods are best

So when you're able

Read the label.

The food refinery

Will bring you misery

If they can put in use

More chemical abuse.

When eating don't bе rude

Be sure to chеw your food.

Your thoughts are in a bind

Relax your tired, tired mind.

Your organs need a rest

From grinding all that mess.

With fasting you will find

Its inner cleaning time.

Old mother nature calls

Make ready for her

Don't ignore her

The sun has energy

It shines for you and me.

Your body, your body sits and cries

Why don't you exercise?

© 1972 Capitol Records, LLC

Back in the Here and Now

When I'm not cleaning out my office cabinets and unearthing 20-year-old CDs of my former collection of MP3s or following whatever rabbit hole NTS radio is leading me down or just plain listening to what I feel like hearing at that moment, I'm keeping up with the newest music releases according to Spotify's weekly Release Radar and NPR's New Music Fridays.  I overlook some 90% of what both sources offer each week and selectively add my own picks from the lists to my personal Newest Shit playlist.  

This week, I added the latest LPs from Deradoorian (Ready for Heaven), Kara-Lis Coverdale (From Where You Came), and Arcade Fire (Pink Elephant), as well as a single (My Love Will Bring You Home) by beloved indie-pop band Allo Darlin.  

I also added the album Electric Fields by David Chalmin and the Labèque sisters, along with soprano Barbara Hannigan. Electric Fields consists of modern arrangements of centuries-old vocal music, including compositions by the German Benedictine abbess, writer, composer, philosopher, mystic, visionary, and medical practitioner Hildegard of Bingen (1098 – 1179), also known as the Sibyl of the Rhine. Hildegard is one of the best-known composers of medieval sacred music and is considered by many to be the founder of scientific natural history in Germany. Her texts were written both in Latin and her own invented lingua ignota. Neurologist Oliver Sacks expressed the opinion that her mystical visions were the result of migraines while not discounting the polymathic brilliance of her many contributions to the arts and science.

O Virga Mediatrix was meant by Hildegard to accompany the singing of the gospel at mass, and is but one of Hildegard’s meditations on the Virgin Mary’s role in salvation. It is the opening track on Electric Fields and showcases Hannigan's voice and the keyboards of Katia and Marielle.