Via satellite, transmitting from northeast Los Angeles — the Aquarium Drunkard Show on SIRIUS/XMU, channel 35. 7pm California time, Wednesdays.
34.1090° N, 118.2334° W . . .
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If JJ Cale had been any more laid-back, gravity would’ve stopped trying. Understated, and rhythm-first, Cale’s distilled blend of regional blues, country, rockabilly, and shuffle stripped away the kink and left only the groove. If there was indeed a Tulsa sound, he was it. Playing less, feeling more. As such, a posthumous post-script from the Breeze might seem, if not suspect, unnecessary. And yet… the release of 2019’s Stay Around proves that sometimes an afterword can indeed swing, giving Cale a reason to linger a little longer . . .
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Recorded in 1984, the unlikely pairing of young Japanese jazz pianist Makoto Terashita and veteran American saxophonist Harold Land was kept obscured for far too long. With its opus "Dragon Dance" originally showcased on the BBE label's essential J Jazz: Deep Modern Jazz from Japan four-part compilation series, Topology unearths the sensational full session. Like his run seventies Blue Note sessions with vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, the unsung tenorist Land is a marvel as a collaborative partner, elevating this set of mostly original compositions by the younger, up-and-coming Makoto Terashita . . .
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Recorded live at KALX‑FM radio at the University of California, Berkeley, Gil Scott-Heron’s January 1978 engagement with his Midnight Band has long circulated as a well-worn bootleg among enthusiasts. Clocking in at around seventy minutes, the recording captures Heron at his artistic zenith in the ’70s, working in vital tandem with Brian Jackson. As broadcasts go, it remains a vivid testament to his singular command of stage, band, and political pulse . . .
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For Bill Frisell, music at its best feels dreamlike. It bends and manipulates time, contracting and expanding. On his latest, In My Dreams the guitarist is joined by longtime collaborators for a spectral set of tunes, including a sterling cover of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn's "Isfahan." He joins us to discuss the record, dreams, and Gary Larson's The Far Side . . .
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In more than a half-century of activity, the legendary bassist has played with nearly everyone in jazz, from cult heroes to celebrated titans to forgotten mavericks. but longevity and dedication as a sideman, along with his stint in Miles Davis' fabled Second Great Quintet, tend to obscure his many other major accomplishments. For his Aquarium Drunkard Interview, Carter talked about the inspiration behind his latest project and his hardscrabble and illustrious past, and went into his philosophical outlook and practical methods. Breaking down music as an art, a profession and a discipline, Carter shows that a life spent keeping . . .
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As definitive statements go, Jean-Claude Vannier’s 1972 magnum opus endures. Arriving a year after his iconic collaboration with Serge Gainsbourg on Histoire de Melody Nelson, L’enfant Assassin des Mouches represents the full flowering of his idiosyncratic vision, expanding the possibilities of contemporary orchestral pop as the rulebook of conventional composition dissolves in its wake . . .
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Welcome back to the stacks. It’s Aquarium Drunkard’s Book Club, our irregular gathering of recent (or not so recent) recommended reading. In this month’s stack: melting some winter ice with Beth Lesser's definitive '80s Jamaican Dancehall coffee table tome, Larry Charles' dangerous comedy memoir, the undersung dean of American pulp and grit-lit, Charles Willieford, Haruki Murakami's anecdote-infused biographies of over fifty jazz musicians, and an uncategorizable work that Thurston Moore describes as “akin to a ‘lost’ recording by the Velvet Underground . . .
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Influenced by the sweet jangly spell of early R.E.M., 1984's The Happy Forest is the lone 12" mini-album from Chicago-based outfit The Reverbs. A duo featuring underground pop stalwart Ric Menck (Velvet Crush, The Springfields), the spirited track "Trusted Woods" was previously the launching off point of the archival Captured Tracks compilation Strum & Thrum, surveying the era's understated guitar-pop landscape. With chiming guitars, sparse production and reverb-drenched vocals, the record simultaneously recalls the essential Byrds jangle and then contemporaries from both coasts, such as neo-psychedelia of the Paisley Underground's Rain . . .
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My Days of 58 is the latest record from singer-songwriter Bill Callahan. What does this record show? It is not only a document, but, as the title states, also an accounting of Callahan at a certain age, portraying who he is as a writer, a musician, a father, a partner, and a human being at a specific moment in time. He joins us to discuss a recent cancer scare, repetition, and visiting his musical heroes in his dreams . . .
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Let it bleed. Egyptian producer Elkotsh's feral debut album, rhlt jdi, embodies a simmering punk-as-fuck ethos. All sweat, the Cairo-based artist plies his polyrhythmic, claustrophobic electro-shaabi across nine relentless tracks, forging a tension that transcends vocabulary, culture, and borders. Under the Cairene sun, Egyptian electronic music mutates in Elkotsh’s grip, tapping into a universal urban freneticism that feels at once visceral and off-world . . .
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Peter Stampfel's Song Shards features a whopping 46 songs. Despite struggles with dysphonia, it's clear the 87-year-old artist, Holy Modal Rounders founder, one-time Fugs member, and solo artist has no trouble gathering up material. He joined us to discuss the record, his spiritual practice, and reflect on artists like Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Smith, and Irving Berlin . . .
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Recorded between his brief tenure as Miles’ early electric co-conspirator and the formation of Weather Report, Joe Zawinul’s 1971 self-titled LP arrived as a quiet statement in the first wave of fusion excess. If Weather Report would later showcase Zawinul as a dominant bandleader and sonic architect, Zawinul offers something more revealing: quiet evidence of a singular vision reaching full bloom. A document of what might have been had the electric revolution taken a more measured, orchestrated path, and a testament to the composer who, even in the shadows, was already shaping its future . . .
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Writing about Clifton Chenier in Smithsonian Folkways' Clifton Chenier: King of Louisiana Blues and Zydeco, American Routes host Nick Spitzer describes Chenier's road to fame on the '70s concert circuit, as his "funky hand-painted van" loaded up with gear and musicians gave way to the King riding solo in a vehicle fit for royalty, "a sparkling 1974 Cadillac de Ville in Persian lime fire-mist...his shining gold teeth and lavender suit accenting the ride as he grew evermore into a regal Creole style . . .
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A spiritual successor to 2011’s Music from Saharan Cellphones, 2022’s Music from Saharan WhatsApp feels less like a sequel than a signal flare from the dunes. Where the first compilation culled music from the memory cards of thumb-worn Nokias, this latest dispatch taps the communication du jour, gathering eleven obscurities as they flicker and forward across the digital ether . . .
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