Singleversity #60

Audiversity’s weekly column on music we stumble across during our sonic adventures. No random numbers, just straight audio goodness.

MA:



One final radio show coming up this week, and though Michael will be sure to go out with an impressive triptych of sets culminating in one extraordinary outro of a song (as usual), I've already used STNNNG's "Grand Island, Neb." which was the final song of my own radio career way back in Singleversity #14. Instead, I thought I'd feature an artist of a different caliber that Michael is equally fond of and which he may play on his show: Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers have also previously been featured here, but this Paris performance from 1959 captures Dizzy Gillespie's "A Night in Tunisia" (from Blakey's album of the same name) is another masterful example of the Pittsburgh native's talent at the peak of his career in the early 60s. The quintet incarnation of the Jazz Messengers - featuring Wayne Shorter, Jymie Merritt, Lee Morgan, and Bobby Timmons - also appears in top form.

PM:



When I'm not living la vida '60, I'm dreaming of a world where people more than faintly recall the brilliance of Ekkehard Ehlers. I gave 2002's Plays a go again this past week and it still sounds as fresh and interesting as it did six(!) years ago. The five singles released on vinyl that Plays brought together include tributes to the Frankfurt artist's heroes: Cornelius Cardew, Hubert Fichte, John Cassavetes, Albert Ayler, and Robert Johnson. Ehlers ends the album with "Robert Johnson (2)," a great example of Ehlers' ability to reference rather than merely sample. One of the great hidden club tracks of this decade, but I only say that because I've never actually heard anyone spin this in a club. Happens all the time?