Gary McFarland is a forgotten name by most music listeners. This is a tragedy since he was a bit of a genius- an arranger/conductor for jazz musicians, a cinematic composer of his own recordings, and a producer of a psychedelic hidden gem. Gary McFarland (born October 23, 1933) began his career arranging and conducting jazz …
This was Gainsbourg’s last studio album before he died. Gainsbourg always adapted to the times; here he went deeper into dance and tight ‘80s funk type grooves with his songs. On top of this, he had refined his songwriting to its most articulate – the lyrics were surreal and very tongue in cheek, more so …
Sometimes you discover music that is a pure injection of electric energy into your day. Ghost Funk Orchestra’s Walk like a Motherfucker (2018) is exactly the kind of joyous, self-assured, even arrogant single that makes you want to strut your bad ass down the street. Don’t think of Travolta here- this is all Shaft. Roll …
I miss those days when I would walk into a record store and scan the wall of new releases. Sometimes looking for nothing more than a sleeve that grabs my eye. That one cover that jumps at me, with no or limited knowledge of the music or musicians within those grooves. The art of album cover design …
The first sound you hear on Hot Buttered Soul is Bar-Kays drummer Willie Hall’s blunt, bodied strike of the snare, followed by two booming kicks. The duration of that sequence isn’t very long; it’s a mere second, maybe a little less, in length. Yet, in essence, those 3 hits of the drumset represent the calm before the …
On Universal Beings, Jazz drummer & producer Makaya McCraven has crafted together a series of gigs from around the globe: London, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, using a different grouping of musicians for each gig / city). The live recordings were then pulled into the studio for processing. The result is completely new and …
