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Showing posts from January, 2010

The Joe Sample Episode of The Line-Up for 1-29-2010

When it comes to my love of Joe Sample, I could really go on for a while. In fact, I already did  for Nextbop this week. To be honest, I rather tapped myself out about my love of all that is Joe there. All that's left is the music (much of which I had to bring from home to enter into the KRTU library). The Crusaders - Eleanor Rigby This is my favorite song, period. I marvel in how the majority of it is really a piano trio piece. It's probably Sample's best solo in his whole career (not to say he's peaked). Joe Sample - Carmel My parents don't often listen to The Line-Up. It's really not their brand of jazz. But since it's clearly been established this week that Joe Sample is loved throughout much of my family, this show is more palatable to them than any other show I've done. Because of that, before putting this show together, I asked my mother what song she'd like to hear this week. She chose "Carmel." Michael Franks - Nightmoves Fr

The Yard Work Handshake

This morning, the family went outside to do some yard work. I spent most of the time mowing the lawn while my parents pulled weeds from the front flower bed and swept out the garage. I suspect one motivation of this was to be outside long enough to meet our new next-door neighbors. These covert acts happen all the time. Someone moves in; you see a car in the driveway now, lights on at night, and the yard got magically cut so you know someone's there now. You've just yet to have a chance to see who these folks are. Are they kind looking? Educated? What's their occupation? Are they the same race as you? The race thing you ask out of curiosity, not some sort of racism. But you spend time trying to surmise all you can from the car model you see but eventually, these folks have to walk outside. But what I find to be really telling is the yard work discourse. You know that discourse. You're out mowing the yard, and you need to stop for a second to move some trash that ble

The Line-Up for 1-22-2010

I don't really have much to say tonight outside of the playlist other than you should read my latest post on Nextbop  on why jazz shouldn't seem like such a scary old genre of music. Also, is this not the laziest of weekends? Enjoy it. Due to FCC protocols, I can't keep my streams up for long terms. SoundCloud was already doing a good job of that which is why I switched to Humyo, but I figure I'll stay in the rules and only keep streams up for at most a month. So, I'm going back to SoundCloud for the streams. Streams of the last two weeks are also still available at KRTU's archives . The Terrence Blanchard Group - D's Choice Jacky Terrasson & Michael Brecker - What's Wrong With You! Roy Hargrove - Family St. Germain - Sure Thing Chick Corea & Hiromi - Summertime Jaspects - Uppity Negro Joshua Redman - Yesterdays Brad Mehldau - Secret Beach

The Line-Up for 1-15-2009

Hey, jazz lovers. I'm back after missing a week due to station maintenance. Did you miss me? This week's show is a sort of showcase for last week's Winter Jazz Fest in New York. You may have heard a bunch about it from folks like Nate Chinen , Ben Ratliff , Alex Rodriguez and others. Peter Hum also put together a few videos from the event in case you want that whole visual aspect. I wish I could have been there for a jazz festival with that kind of energy but clearly, that's not the case. So, I figure I'll bring that kind of energy to The Line-Up this week. Rudresh Mahanthappa & the Indo-Pak Coalition - Apti Vijay Iyer - Mystic Brew Darcy James Argue's Secret Society - Phobos Dr. Lonnie Smith - Pilgrimage Lionel Loueke - Seven Teens Ben Allison & Man Size Safe - Man Size Safe Jason Moran - Gangsterism on Stages Gretchen Parlato - In a Dream Oh, and one more thing. If you didn't know by now, I've started writing for the upstart jaz

Why Jon Stewart Should Pick Himself Up from the Dirt

While passing time at work, I happened upon one of Ezra Klein's copious blog posts of the day for The Washington Post in which he lambasts Jon Stewart's extremely lackluster interview of former Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo . Klein made some valid points about how Stewart could have done much better than he did yesterday but I felt he got a little too critical of Stewart's overall interview style. So, here's my critique on his critique. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I understand what Serwer and Klein are saying here. Stewart didn't do his homework yesterday, true. But I can't agree with Klein's claim that Stewart is now doing a disservice by continuing interviews of this ilk. 1) You're not likely to see interviews with the individuals Stewart or even Colbert get on their shows on most networks. These kinds of important but not often remembered people do need limelight fo

Calling a Probable Spade a Spade, All the While Trying to Avoid Blasphemy

While in bible study this evening, the lesson discussed was about dispensations and the compartments of hell. I tend to really like bible study because I approach my Christianity a lot like I approach school, I like learning. Anyway, things got a little funny to me when the etymology of Gehenna was mentioned. Gehenna is one subgroup of hell but its name comes from an actual geographic location directly outside of Jerusalem. Gehenna was a burning trash heap. Apparently, Christ in his teaching referred to hell as akin to a burning trash heap but I can't help but think he was (for lack of a better word) dumping on that place. What's funnier is that when you think about it, He's sort of done this before. In my heart of hearts, I know Jesus was loving and forgiving. His teachings were the next stage of Judeo-Christianity. This is a religion of tolerance, no matter what others say about it. But that still doesn't change the fact that in moments like these, my Savior s

A List of Blog Ideas I've Been Planning and Could Possibly Come to Fruition (with a whole lot of poking and prodding)

I know, I know. I haven't really written anything here in a while. There's actually a long list of topics I have been developing in my head for blogposts that I've wanted to write but haven't had the motivation to fully articulate. After foraging through little piles of paper in my room, I've found my Post-Its of ideas that need development: - Radiohead: 21st Century Pink Floyd or Beatles      art      craft, composition, strength of covers      lack of drug use - Response to Kyla Marshell Berry's post decrying nerds (Yeah, I've been in writer's lethargy since at least October. I've seriously wanted to respond to her well-written but somewhat polarizing post for three months now and have kept it on my mind all that time.) - A Critique of Vince Guaraldi's work with Peanuts - The Role of the Ugly American      Wendell's specialty      Kris's vegetarianism      Steve's suggestion - Proposed Soda Tax is equivalent to the S

The Line-Up 1-1-2010

So we've reached a new year and Friday came around all the same. I spent most of the day vegging out and watching Doctor Who , a show I've grown to appreciate all too late.  I don't really have much to say this week but I hope this show finds you well.  Personally, I'm putting all my neuroses on the back burner and saying I did pretty good today instead of focusing on the million screw ups I normally find. But when you get right down to it, it's all about the music so... Medeski, Martin & Wood - Chasen vs. Suribachi Esbjörn Svensson Trio - Letter from the Leviathan This is actually my favorite E.S.T. song. There's something about when this group plays something dark in which they truly shine. Al Jarreau & Kurt Elling - Take Five I've never heard this song before I played it on the show but I mean... come on. Al Jarreau practically claimed this song after Brubeck and then you throw Kurt Elling into the mix. Done. George Benson - So What I'