Category Archives: MTH-V

annotated video series

MTH-V: Tricky Live

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Holiday and family obligations delayed this week’s video, but better late than never!

I’ve had Tricky on my mind throughout the last week. While not as active or as deep of a fan of his as some of the other artists I’ve discussed in this series, I really dig him nonetheless. I was peripherally aware of him in the mid-90s, but was quite blown away when I saw him and his band perform at Lollapalooza ’97 (that performance included both songs featured below). Part of the reason I was so struck by his performance was that I hadn’t seen (or heard!) anything like that before, and rarely have I seen something comparable in concert since. I still smile thinking of it all these years later.

Though Tricky’s music evidences a variety of influences, it is largely classified as trip hop. And while I can sympathize with those who may raise an eyebrow at suspect labels/categories, this one is an actual “thing.” (If you’re curious, read this for more context.) If you listen to enough of his music, you’ll notice some similarities with a few of his fellow Brits who also started in the early 90s, notably Portishead and some Radiohead.

This first video is a live performance of “Christiansands” (from 1996’s Pre-Millennium Tension). This is perhaps my favorite Tricky video on YouTube, likely because it’s the same band I saw 15 years ago. 🙂

This performance of “Vent” (from the same album) is more recent.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRszjBUn3BE

MTH-V: Miles – Live in Berlin ’73

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This Christmas, for whatever reason, I’ve been in an early Liebman & electric Miles kind of mood. Hence this week’s video. Miles’s pre-hiatus electric period is one of my favorites of his. For those fans of the addicting Dark Magus (1977), you should love this clip.

This was originally a television broadcast of a live performance, but I believe it’s since been circulated on one of the European bootleg outfits. (I have a number of those, but have yet to pick up this gem. I didn’t know it was available.) The video and audio quality are quite crisp for being so old and “lost.” For those Miles fans out there intimately familiar with The Miles Davis Story DVD, a clip or two from this concert (this particular clip, in fact) are included in the portion on his electric 1970s period.

A couple highlights (among many) in this clip:
1. Miles as Bandleader:  I’ve mentioned before my fondness for Miles as a bandleader. Here you see him “conducting” at time, especially during Liebman’s solo (3:34-5:20). Sure, his back was to the audience (gasp!), but what he was really doing was facing the band.
2. Liebman’s solo: On fire! (As always…)
3. THE BAND!: This core lineup is featured on a number of ~1973-5 recordings.
Miles Davis – Trumpet, Organ
Pete Cosey – Guitar, Percussion
Al Foster – Drums
Michael Henderson – Bass
Dave Liebman – Saxophones, Flute, Percussion
Reggie Lucas – Guitar
James Mtume – Percussion

Title: “Moja – Pt. 1” (or “Turnaround”)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxSFSdcGPLM

 

MTH-V: Mike Stern & Bob Berg

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Two weeks ago I posted a 1985 Miles Davis performance featuring Bob Berg and John Scofield. Piggybacking on that, this week I’d like to focus Bob Berg and another guitarist: Mike Stern (another Miles alumnus). This time they’re fronting their own band, having each moved on from being sidemen to the Prince of Darkness.

Berg’s “Friday Night at the Cadillac Club” is a fun and funky blues, especially with Stern. (I like bassist Lincoln Goines; Dennis Chambers‘s drumming is pretty static, but that somewhat comes with the funk-ish territory.) This particular tune sticks out in my mind after having seen Berg in what turned out to be his final year. (I saw him in February 2002, and he was killed in an car accident that December.) I whistled that melody to myself for weeks afterward.

Both of the videos are from 1990. The first is from Japan’s 1990 Newport Jazz Festival. (Enjoy the ubiquitous Budweiser ads throughout the festival grounds.) I prefer the solos in this first video, but the sound quality is better in the second (though the first is good enough). Beware the hideous cuts around the second chorus of each solo in the second video, however. (That’s why it’s not the main video in this post.) Music aside, someone should have suggested that Bob pack a second outfit for this tour. 🙂 But, at least his fashion sense drastically improved after 1985!

 

(Beware of skips!)

MTH-V: Trio Mediæval’s “Gjendine’s Lullaby”

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Regular readers should be at least passively familiar with Trio Mediæval. I’ve mentioned them in a few posts, as well as writing a “New Listen” on their most recent album, A Worcester Ladymass. Their informed, artful renditions of Medieval, traditional, and contemporary works – both sacred and secular – are irresistible. Couple that with their partnership with ECM, far and away my favorite record label (as also frequently mentioned here), and you have a consistent recipe for success.

This week’s video is of a performance “Gjendine’s Lullaby” from 2007’s Folk Songs, the first album of theirs I purchased. I was hooked upon first listen – enough to acquire all of their albums over the next year. Subtitled “Ballads, Hymns and Lullabies,” the album description is: “Traditional songs from Norway arranged for voices and percussion.” This particular song is an arrangement of a traditional lullaby that was, as mentioned in the liner notes, “written down by Edvard Grieg after Kaia Gjendine Slaalien, Jotunheimen.”

Trio Mediæval:
Anna Maria Friman
Linn Andrea Fuglseth
Torunn Østrem Ossum
w. Birger Mistereggen, percussion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lpoge9tEK9o

Text (translation by Andrew Smith):
The child is laid in its cradle, sometimes crying, sometimes smiling.
The child is laid in its cradle, sometimes crying, sometimes smiling
Sleep, now sleep in Jesus’ name; Jesus, watch over this child.
Sleep, now sleep in Jesus’ name; Jesus, watch over this child
Mother lifts me to her lap, dances with me to and fro.
Mother lifts me to her lap, dances with me to and fro
Dance then, dance with your children, dance, and your child will dance.
Dance then, dance with your children, dance, and your child will dance.

MTH-V: Miles Davis’s ‘One Phone Call’

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Note: I’ve tried to make a habit thus far of largely avoiding material that’s also available for purchase on DVD. However, sometimes it’s unavoidable, and this time, because of cuts, it’s advantageous.

Miles is without peer, that’s a given. He’s one of my Top 5 (along with TOOL, Dave Matthews Band, John Coltrane, and Smashing Pumpkins), my own personal Hall of Legends that cannot be paralleled. I can assure y’all that this will be the first of likely many Miles entries in this series. Not only does my love of Miles’s music run deep, but it also runs wide. Yes, the early stuff with Bird is great, as is the Prestige era. And yes, I have almost his entire Columbia output. However, one period that often gets written off (and not without some justification) is his 1980-91 “comeback,” of which I’m a staunch defender. Sure, his playing wasn’t what it once was, and the music was different (but not worse or “less than”). However, Miles remained on top of his game in one department: bandleader.

Thought not as audience-friendly and/or extroverted as Duke, Miles knew how to assemble a band and get the best out of each musician. This is as apparent in 1985 as it was with the “First Quintet,” “Second Quintet,” and the various fusion bands of the 70s. Consider, for instance, his 1981 lineup of Bill Evans (sax), Mike Stern, Marcus Miller, Mino Cinelu, and Al Foster. With a powerhouse band like that, Miles is simply the Dude’s Rug.

This week’s video is an excerpt of one of Miles’s 1980s staple openers, “One Phone Call,” from 1985. (It went through many iterations before and after, but that was the name given for the studio release on 1985’s You’re Under Arrest.) It can be found on one of my favorite Miles DVDs, Miles Davis: Live In Montreal. While this particular YouTube video is missing the opening vamp, trumpet solo, and melody, it focuses on the real meat & potatoes: solos by the late Bob Berg and John Scofield. (Also, you don’t have to hear Vince Wilburn, Jr. – the band’s weak link & Miles’s nephew – drop the tempo, or see the rest of the band push him along.) I actually prefer the (accidental) slower tempo to earlier incarnations with Al Foster, but it would’ve been nice had Foster stuck around another year for this performance. Regardless, this clip is funky – it should get you out of your seat!

There’s not much more to say other than BOB BERG and JOHN SCOFIELD! They destroy, as only they can do. And Darryl Jones’s thumb is hard to ignore… (too bad he can’t do this kind of stuff at his current gig!)

Lineup:
Miles Davis – Trumpet
Bob Berg – Saxophone
Robert Irving III – Synthesizer
Darryl Jones – Bass
John Scofield – Guitar
Steve Thornton – Percussion (I love the way he creeps up behind Scofield during the guitar solo… :))
Vince Wilburn, Jr. – Drums

If you have the time, Part 1 is here.