Play | The Rhapsody Editorial Music Blog

Live: McCoy Tyner & Marc Ribot @ Yoshi's, San Francisco

About halfway down the half page of scrawl I took home from last night’s performance of the McCoy Tyner trio with Marc Ribot is a note that made perfect sense at the time. It says, “This is the difference between what is and what should be.” In the clear light of the morning, the stoner epiphany of that sentence seems exactly like the kind of thing you write down during a drug experience -- something so urgent, that life’s needle comes scratching off the record and you have to write it down immediately, fearing that your square, sober self will let the newly discovered answer to life’s mystery slip away. When you wake up the next day, head pounding and tongue thick, it’s happened again: the sagacious wisdom has melted into a bit of nonsense like “this is the difference between what is and what should be.”

Wild Gifts at the Rockabilly Lounge

by Chuck Eddy

Once upon a time – like, back in the ‘50s – the music that people now call "rockabilly" and the music that people now call “lounge music” were probably diametrically opposed. But somewhere along the way – at least for such nostalgifying recent lady-led outfits as Devil Doll, Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles, Little Rachel and the Lazy Jumpers and Britt Savage & Twang Deluxe – they became more or less one and the same.

Video: Herbie Hancock & Joni Mitchell Live

by Chris Ryan

Hot off of a very successful night at the Grammys, Herbie Hancock recently took the time to record a live session with the lady who helped get him there. For the first time anywhere, Hancock performed with Joni Mitchell, whose music inspired his much-lauded album River: The Joni Letters, as part of the Nissan Live Sets concert series (which you can see over at Yahoo!). Check out the performance of "The River" above, then go to Yahoo! Music to see Herbie and Joni collaborate on "Tea Leaf" and "Hanna." There's also a rare live version of Hancock's hip-hop jazz classic "Rockit." No joke!

Further Viewing:
Herbie Hancock & Joni Mitchell Live

Electioneering '08: Violin Diplomacy

by Piotr Orlov

Even in election years, the music-and-politics story isn’t always about the soundtrack of the campaign trail. Sometimes it’s about the soundtrack behind the DMZ.

The New York Philharmonic Orchestra made news this week by traveling to North Korea to play what turned out to be a historic, internationally televised concert in Pyongyang on Tuesday. The visit took on both ambassadorial and artistic trappings. The trip was the first-ever to North Korea by an American cultural organization, and included the biggest delegation of Americans to visit the country since the end of the Korean War in 1953. It also included a Wednesday morning rehearsal during which members of the Philharmonic and the Orchestra’s musical director Lorin Maazel played with the State Symphony Orchestra of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, allowing for historic interaction between groups of people who may as well be ghosts to one another. (It may be the first of many: if reports of continued cultural exchange are to be believed, classic rock/blues legend Eric Clapton may be following the Phil to play for and with the North Koreans.)

R.I.P. Teo Macero & Joe Gibbs

by Piotr Orlov

Behold, a requiem for the music producer! In 2008, when pretty much any Tom, Dick or Harriet with a Pro Tools set-up and some decent microphones could finagle a “produced by” credit onto the meta-data file of a digital release, let’s take a moment to pay homage to a pair of gentlemen who worked a little harder in creating great music. It wasn’t just different skill sets or historical perspectives that separated Teo Macero and Joe Gibbs from the multitudes of today’s whippersnappers. Macero, who passed away after a long illness on February 19 at the age of 82, and Gibbs, who died of a sudden heart attack on February 21 at the age of 65, also possessed visions (sonic, aesthetic, hell, even commercial) they could share with their collaborators and guide them to a new place. Rare gifts in the age of press-and-record.

Village Voice: Safe Jazz In '07

This week's Village Voice tallies the votes for its annual Jazz Poll, and Francis Davis mulls over what it all means. Women made a strong showing, including Maria Schneider, Dee Dee Bridgewater and Abbey Lincoln at the head of the list.

Best of 2007: Jazz

Forget the doom-and-gloom scenarios -- jazz is alive and well in 2007. It may not get much airplay or mainstream promotion, but amazing jazz releases just kept coming out all year long. As a matter of fact, there have been so many fantastic jazz albums this year that we've broke things down into 10 broad topics below. As you read, why not listen to cuts from Rhapsody's list of best jazz albums of 2007. We're so jazz-crazed over here, we even created a list of Rhapsody's favorite jazz reissues of 2007. Whew!

Panart Records: How Cuba Jammed

Whether you're a committed Cubaphile or just want to experience the classic Havana sound beyond the folky Buena Vista Social Club, you should be as excited as I am about the digital release of music from the Panart Records catalog.

Thursday Is the New Wednesday

Marco Benevento has announced another month-long NYC residency.  He will be experimenting with different lineups, instruments and styles every Thursday in January 2008 to help open the newly renovated Sullivan Hall, formally the Lion’s Den.  He’s pulled together some of the finest, improvisationally inclined musicians as scheduled guests, including The Slip guitarist Brad Barr and Billy Martin of MMW.  Benevento is a schizophrenic musical mind, seemingly always on tour exploring different musical paths each time, whether it be with his ever-evolving post-jam outfit The Benevento Russo Duo, the politically charged Coalition of the Willing, the brief outing of Mike & the Italians or any collaborative festival gig that may catch his fancy.  Whatever the occasion may be, he has the creative capacity and technical skill to make the music better and the shirts cooler.

His residency at Sullivan Hall promises to be full of weekly surprises and free-form jazz as Benevento’s previous NYC residency (Wednesdays in November 2006 at the Tonic) was well documented with Live at the Tonic, a three-disc live album featuring the highlights. 

How to Love "The Most Hated Album In Jazz"

The Guardian's Paul Tingen explores how the influence of On The Corner, the 1972 Miles Davis album once derided as “repetitious crap” and “an insult to the intellect of the people,” grew well outside the confines of jazz. It has inspired everything from Sonic Youth and Radiohead, to Brian Eno’s entire ambient catalog, and has been hailed as “the first hip-hop/house/drum’n’bass/breakbeat album.” Check the essay, check the original album, and then tackle the new 31-song uber-set featuring all the tracks recorded during the On The Corner sessions.