Some in extraordinary condition recently came into my life and I thought I'd share them with you. These albums were all released between 1957 and 1962 and these are originals so are between 67 and 62 years old as I post this.
An oldie but a goodie. Gotta be my favorite talk show performance. I watch it a couple times a year. Sam Herring's sincerity and vulnerability; the unexpected change in his voice's tone; Letterman's joyous expression of delight. So great.
Childish Gambino's new video may be his best yet, which is saying something. Give it a watch or two and then check out the lyrics.
The less this video and song make sense to you, the more I would encourage you to check the analysis of the lyrics on Genius. And yeah, I could have done without the Nudy part, too.
The Pudding does a deep-dive into Rolling Stone's "Greatest Albums of All Time" rankings.
I'm not much of a fan of Rolling Stone, or the ranking of music in general, but thought this Pudding page was very well done.
My number one non-Jazz album of all-time is Veedon Fleece by Van Morrison. It's one of my most revisited pieces of art. I also love his album, Astral Weeks. And though I like some other here-and-there tracks by Morrison, most of his other stuff bores me.
Interestingly, Rolling Stone originally gave Veedon Fleece one star and called it "self-indulgent... pompous tripe." In 2008, they re-evaluated the album, giving it four stars and said he "never again hit the majestic heights of this one."
It's a favorite record of artists as diverse as Elvis Costello, Josh Klinghoffer (Red Hot Chili Peppers), and Sinead O'Connor, who said it was what she listened to right before going on stage.
You can check out the Pudding deep dive before or after you listen to Veedon Fleece on YouTube. They're both below.
NTS Live has an archive of Black Classical's extraordinary Spiritual Jazz playlists. In addition to the 12 hour streams, there's focuses on Strata / Strata-East, Three Blind Mice, and more.