Category: Music

Hoopla Music Review: Dizzy Gillespie ‘Jambo Caribe’ (1964)

Posted on by Sue

You know how they always told you never to judge a book by its cover? Well, in this case, they’re wrong. Just look at that thing. Is it a child’s sugar-fueled scribblings, a Ralph Steadman/Hunter S. Thompson ‘Fantasia’ sequence, or Harry Belafonte’s worst experience on acid? It’s hella bizarre whatever it is, and it pretty much sums up the eclectic and eccentric music contained within.

Alternating between cool, catchy, Caribbean-influenced instrumentals like ‘Hello, Trinidad’ and ‘And Then She Stopped’ and the frenetic, infectious insanity of Dizzy’s vocals on songs like ‘Poor Joe’ and ‘Don’t Try To Keep Up With The Joneses’, this is one of the most exciting and unusual jazz/world albums you’re ever going to hear.
 
Future stars Kenny Barron (piano) and James Moody (flute) accompany throughout, but ‘Jambo Caribe’ is truly the personality and sound of just one man, bebop’s most famous extended cheeks, Mr John Birks ‘Dizzy’ Gillespie. It may be his experimental, unpredictable trumpet playing that has kept this album relevant with critics and jazzopiles over the years, but it’s his playful sense of humor and obvious affection for the calypso music of the West Indies that will keep you laughing, singing, and jumping around your house every time you play it.

Falmouth Public Library, West Falmouth and Woods Hole cardholders can stream the album FREE on Hoopla here. For information on how to get a Hoopla account, click here! (reviewed by Josh)

Music by the Flaming Lips, ‘Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots’

Posted on by Sue
The title track starts off with a lone acoustic guitar strumming in a loose, Jonathan Richman style, a warbling synthesizer chirping out a couple of random, faltering notes behind it. Faint, far away voices can be heard speaking what sounds like Japanese just as a fat, stomping drum beat comes crashing in, immediately rerouting the song’s assumed course. Like Aladdin entering the Raja’s palace only after his loud procession of musicians, jugglers and elephants, it is then that frail-voiced singer, Wayne Coyne, steps up to the mic to deliver his ballad of the city-funded, black belt, robot fighter.
 
Much like The Flaming Lips’ first hit, ‘She Don’t Use Jelly’, ‘Yoshimi’s’ charm lies in its goofy, unusual rhymes (“She’s taking lots of vitamins cause she knows that it’d be tragic if those evil robots win”), and the fact that there is really no need for such a song ever to exist and yet it seems to fill some void that was ’til now unnoticed. It’s a semi-funky, instantly catchy number, perfect for nerdy manga fans and/or parents looking to play something other than the two Frozen soundtracks when their kids are in the car.
 
Then there’s ‘One More Robot/Sympathy 3000-21’. It’s a mellow, melancholy song that expresses in five heartbreaking minutes what it has taken ‘Westworld’ three-and-counting seasons to get across.

If this were as good as the album got, I’d say go ahead and YouTube the first three or four songs and call it a day. But the other, non-robot tracks are some of the most purely-written songs of love and loss since Leonard Cohen dropped ‘Hallelujah’. (What?! Record reviews are all about hyperbole disguised as personal opinion!)

Although only two or three other songs will get you as amped as ‘Yoshimi’, the others possess a quality that inspires introspection and reflection, sadness and hope. Coyne’s wounded voice, Steven Drozd’s seemingly repetitious yet persuasive drumming, and Michael Ivins’ incredibly inventive use of synths as background sound effects and impressionistic soundscapes combine to create an album full of the same sort of excitement that their older, punkier albums had with the more intricate and psychedelic experimentation of their more recent records. Equal parts pessimism, existentialism and anime-inspired science fiction, with ‘Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots’, The Flaming Lips may have created the most honest and innocent album of their discography.

If you have a Falmouth-issued library card, you can listen to ‘Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots’ on Hoopla via this link! You can learn about-and sign up for-Hoopla here. 
 
Music review by Josh!

A Gentle Giant: In Memory of Bill Withers (July 4, 1938 – March 30, 2020)

Posted on by Sue

Singer/songwriter Bill Withers passed away on March 30 from heart complications. But for 81 years prior to that, he was a genius musician, poet, songwriter and activist.

Bill Withers released his first album, ‘Just As I Am’ in 1971. Featuring such classics as ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’ and ‘Grandma’s Hands’, it immediately identified Withers as an artist on par with the John Lennon, Marvin Gaye and Joni Mitchell. His next album, ‘Still Bill’, was equally amazing, giving us the classics ‘Lean On Me’ and ‘Who Is He (And What Is He to You)?’

Throughout his career, Withers would release nine studio albums, one live album, and countless collaborations with other artists (most notably ‘Just the Two of Us’ with Grover Washington Jr.). Withers was nominated for seven Grammys and won three. In 2015, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

In 2009, the documentary film ‘Still Bill’, was released. It is a GREAT way to learn more about this icon and appreciate the art he gave us. If you have a Falmouth-issued card, ‘Still Bill’ is available as to stream free on Qello, through our RB digital platform. You can sign up for it on our site here-call us or email if you need help with this. 

The link to ‘Still Bill’ on Qello is here, you can access it by creating a free account with your card.

(written by Josh)