FLABBERGASTED FREEFORM is back… sort of
I actually made this mix for a dear friend over a year ago. I kind of gave up on posting public mixes as I feel outdone by both AI and the many human DJs with better skillz than me, but what the hell, why not. Continue reading
It’s been a year since the last Flabbergasted Freeform, and ten months since the last “Focus” podcast of old calypso and soca. There are a bunch of reasons why I didn’t feel like doing them any more, but I won’t go into them here. But since this month marks the TEN YEAR ANNIVERSARY of the blog, I thought it called for some special commemorations. This Freeform mix was done in December of last year and was only circulated privately. It’s a good time, though, so I’m sharing it with the world now and hope the world enjoys it. The first person to find the couple bars of “Them Changes” quoted in another song gets a free Secret Decoder Ring. That is, as soon as I get them from the magazine I ordered where I ordered a dozen of these powerful devices, which happened to be a back issue from 1958, so please be patient.
You can stream the podcast at Mixcloud or get it directly from the link below the widget.
Here is an aural tradition that I only occasionally follow – a mix of some of the many remarkable musicians, singers, composers, and arrangers who left this planet during the last year (now itself good and dead, 2016). For the dozen or so people still listening to these podcasts, I had at one time intended and promised to post this in the last weeks of the year. A lot of factors made that into much less of a priority when the time rolled around, but there was also the uncomfortable hunch that we weren’t quite out of the woods yet regarding celebrities reaching their expiration dates. I even considered a horror movie type scenario where any still-living musicians who just happened to play on these tracks might be put at risk, or even worse, some Ring-like scenario where just listening to the podcast might kill you. So I quite reasonably decided to hold off until the year had safely passed to finish it, and now here it is, completely free of demonic powers.
It is by necessity incomplete: there were just too many stiffs to work with. I opted not to include Muhammad Ali’s perplexing rendition of “Stand By Me” from 1963, for example. I also couldn’t find the right moment to fit in a track from the bootlegged 1977 studio session where Paul Kantner briefly fired Grace Slick and Marty Balin from Jefferson Starship, and replaced them with Carrie Fisher and Blowfly. The abandoned album was tentatively to called “Blowfly Against the Empire ’77”. It was a concept album, of course, and hard to take any one song out of context…(*edit: I legitimately forgot Buckwheat Zydeco, and I even had some of his records pulled. Boo, hiss…)
A few artists from Part One (done way back in October) were repeated here, but most were not. So if you are wondering where are Natalie Cole, Gato Barbieri, The Brothers Johnson or Phife Dawg, have a look back in the archives. I don’t recall if I ever mentioned Rudy Van Gelder by name during either show, but surely he recorded at least a couple things in there somewhere. A playlist will be uploaded in a few days time.
Besides streaming this show on Mixcloud, you can also get direct downloads in the links below it. If you feel inspired, you can make a little donation with one of the buttons on the right-hand column – every penny helps to cover the costs of hosting this site.
Some assorted Sunday sounds for you all.
Direct download links so you can take these files anywhere offline
Direct download links:
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Os Originais do Samba – Lá Vem Salgueiro
Elza Soares – Bom dia, Portela
Xangô da Mangueira – Jequitibá do Samba
Darcy da Mangueira – Samba do Trabalhador
Clara Nunes – Candongueiro
Clementina de Jesus – Embala Eu
Giovana – Pisa nesse Chão com Força
Roberto Ribeiro – Coração Contrariado
Os Partideiros 10 – Barra Pesada and Compadre
Roberto Silva – Era Atômica
Francisco Alves – Ai, Ai Que Pena!
Luiz Ayrão – Porta Aberta
Caetano Veloso – Chuva, Suor e Cerveja
Os Demônios da Garoa – Um Samba no Bixiga
Cesar Costa Filho – Um Bilhete pra Longe
Leci Brandão – Decepção de uma Porta-Bandeira
João Nogueira – As Forças da Natureza
Dorival Caymmi e Bando da Lua – Acontece que Eu Sou Baiano
Carmen Miranda – É um Quê que a Gente Tem
Raul de Barros – Folhas Secas
Maria Creuza – Amor de Mãe
João Bosco – O Mestre-Sala dos Mares
Jorge Veiga – Na Cadência do Samba
Just in time to close out the year, here is Episode 15 of the ongoing saga of freeform flabbergasting podcasts. It also happens to be the third anniversary of when I first started sharing these things. Hope you enjoy it!
Here are some direct download links (note: you only need one)
Link #3
and below is the Mixcloud version
