We played outside in our snowsuits, and then the sitter turned on the engine and the heat. We sat near the vents, drinking hot chocolate from a thermos lid. The windows were frosted from our breathing.

Out there in the snow, where we couldn’t see, my parents glided along, still married to each other. My mother was younger than I am now. They wore wool pants and sweaters and hats, and it was only from a distance that their progress looked effortless and unimpeded. Up close, the gliding through fresh snow made them sweat, and my father’s glasses steamed up. Their noses and cheeks were red, and they were laughing at a joke he’d made. The high clear air smelled like Douglas fir and snow. – Hot or Cold.
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” Jazzy Warmer for Winter Traveling ”

01. Larry Ochs Trio – dragons fly
With Sax And Drumming Core-Out Trios Volume Five (Atavistic, 2009)
02. McCoy Tyner – Back Bay Blues
Land of Giants (2003)
03. Bud Powell Trio – Buster Rides Again
Time Waits (1958)
04. Art Tatum – I’ve Got the World on a String
The Art of Tatum (Asv Living Era, 1995)
05. Jose James – Winterwind
The Dreamer (Brownswood, 2008)
06. Natalie Cole – Unforgettable (Duet with Nat “king” Cole)
Unforgettable: With Love (1991)
07. Cassandra Wilson – Come On In My Kitchen
Blue Light ‘Til Dawn (1993)
08. Anita O’Day – Just One of Those Things
Anita O’Day Swings Cole Porter with Billy May (1959)

note: Yeah. I know things are a bit slow in here. Don’t be shocked when we announce that end of year and end of decade will be delayed until 2012 just to give sleepy eyes in the motel a chance to catch up with fastly approaching year end. :D But how about a list for traveling first? I know everybody will be traveling a lot soon. I’ll make two or three of them. This one is with beat while not being able to hear anything clearly (plane vibration, low air pressure, sniffling nose, miserable moist level in cabin) I limit the range and up beat the rhythm just to keep things moving while strapped on a seat. Classic and post bop. Swing, baby. I suppose it’ll work for driving too. But I’ll try to make one for driving. So put on a good headphone and enjoy the music.

image: drl.

The remaining systems within ten light years are the binary red dwarf system Luyten 726-8 (8.7 light years) and the solitary red dwarf Ross 154 (9.7 light years). Our closest solitary sun-like star is Tau Ceti, which lies 11.9 light years away. It has roughly 80 percent the Sun’s mass, but only 60 percent its luminosity. The closest known extrasolar planet to the Sun lies around the star Epsilon Eridani, a star slightly dimmer and redder than the Sun, which lies 10.5 light years away. Its one confirmed planet, Epsilon Eridani b, is roughly 1.5 times Jupiter’s mass and orbits its star every 6.9 years. – wiki

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” As Big as the Solar System ”

01. Luigi Nono – Liebeslied
Wien Modern (1990)
02. Kronos Quartet – Spem in alium “Sing And Glorify”, P. 299 (arr. Kronos Quartet)
Black Angels (1990)
03. Tarentel - Blessed|Cursed
The Order of Things (Neurot Recordings, 2001)
04. Fridge - Harmonics
Happiness (Temporary Residence, 2001)
05. Nels Cline/Greg Bendian – Venus
Interstellar Space Revisited (The Music of John Coltrane) (2005)
06. Slint - Washer
Spiderland (Touch & Go Records, 1991)
07. Rachel’s – Artemisia
Selenography (Touch & Go Records, 1999)
08. The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble – Parallel Corners
The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble (Planet Mu, 2006)
09. Broadcast - Look Outside
Noise made by people (2000)
10. Ralph Towner – Piscean Dreams
Solstice (ECM, 1975)

Note: Wow, posting has been sparse. Here is a big one, try to make it last for a few days :D. It’s really big, I like it. A simple post-rock mix with few string tracks. Random really, I just need an excuse to post the above beautiful solar system exploration map. So, post rock with a tinge of spacey feel is in order. Float around the solar system for a moment. In the meantime, we still trying to sort things out. (no really…really really… )

image: National Geography via Gizmodo

If you think this tragedy is over think again. There are still families out there in corners of this country trying to figure out what they are going to do to get their lives back to some normalcy. There are so many musicians who were well known in New Orleans that are totally unknown where they are now. Imagine building your fanbase or your work base in your workplace and suddenly it all disappears. – Jeff Beninato

Professor Longhair Big Chief
(Big Chief/ 2002)
Dr. John Dream Warrior
(Re-Define 8/29/ 2009)
Johnny Sansone Poor Man’s Paradise
(Re-Define 8/29/ 2009)
John Rankin If I Ever Cease to Love
(Re-Define 8/29/ 2009)
James Andrews One, Two, What You Gonna Do
(Re-Define 8/29/ 2009)
Barry Cowsill Kid
(Re-Define 8/29/ 2009)
Susan Cowsill Who Knows Where the Time Goes
(Re-Define 8/29/ 2009)
Spencer Bohren Long Black Line
(Re-Define 8/29/ 2009)
Twangorama Who Can I Turn To – My Romance
(Re-Define 8/29/ 2009)

note: (a la Moka) remember 2005? New Orleans does, because in many parts of the city people wake up to August 29, 2005 every single day — still. The heart of New Orleans is the soul of the country; their music is a lifeline for millions of people the world over. Though Katrina broke the levees, she did not break their spirit. Tides continue to roll, and somehow the FEMA trailers are becoming as much a part of the city as beignets, brass bands, and Bourbon Street. What happens to a dream deferred? Ask 9th Ward musicians like Jeff Beninato, founder of the New Orleans Musician’s Relief Fund. The fund was started to get instruments back in the hands of local musicians, and in the midst of a stalled government reconstruction effort, NOMRF is catalyzing the grassroots reconstruction effort to revitalize the heart of the city and soul of the country — one string at a time. Re-Define 8/29 is a compilation album featuring local, and national, musicians who’ve come together to redefine Post-Katrina 8/29. A dream deferred is not dead, and neither is New Orleans.

NOMRF
Home Page
Download: Re-Define 8/29

sidenote: I started off with Professor Longhair because before Katrina deferred the dream, Big Chief was anthemic Nawlins soul.
image: robholland

“Defenestration is the act of throwing someone or something out of a window. The term was coined around the time of an incident in a Prague Castle in the year of 1618. The word comes from the Latin de (from; out of) and fenestra (window or opening). Although defenestrations can be fatal due to the height of the window through which a person is thrown, or lacerations from broken glass, the act of defenestration need not carry the intent or result of death.” – wiki

1. Mulatu Astatke & His Ethiopian Quintet – I Faram Gami I Faram (‘Afro Latin Soul’, Worthy Records, 1966)
2. Tangoterje – New Morning Reworked (g.a.m.m. records, 2006)
3. The Col Nolan Syndicate – Buckingham Palace (7″ Votary Records)
4. Os Tremendos – Nome Do Jogo (Adventures in Paradise, 2007 [re-issue])
5. Rabbit Rumba – Caramelos (‘Achilifunk: Gypsy Soul 1969-1979′, Lovemonk records)
6. Banda Los Hijos De La Nina Luz – Dejala Corre (7″ Soundway records, 2008)
7. Soil & Pimp Sessions – A.I.E. (Tugg edit) (Brownswood recordings, 2007)

This playlist is a sort of non-fatal defenestration of ‘genre’ – blending jazz, latin, afrobeat and a little weirdness thrown in for good measure. All of the tracks throw degrees of conventionality out the window. Tangoterje’s track is a tongue in cheek cover of Kitty Winter Gypsy Nova -  a German fusion group. ‘Buckingham Palace’ is a track from my home town, Melbourne – white men grooving out. These blends of sounds, continents and genres verge on mania… Why not leap out the window every now and then? Movement is key. To quote Douglas Adams, “It’s not the fall that kills you…It’s the sudden stop…”

pic: Yves Klein Leap into the Void, 1961

p.s. to any motel readers living in Melbourne, I run a monthly night called Outfoxed at georgeLane… come down on Friday 28th August and say hello – i’ll be the guy playing records…

“I wish you wouldn’t keep appearing and vanishing so suddenly: you make one quite giddy.”
“All right,” said the Cat; and this time it vanished quite slowy, beginning with the end of the tail, and ending with the grin, which remained some time after the rest of it had gone.
“Well! I’ve often seen a cat without a grin,” thought Alice; “but a grin without a cat! It’s the most curious thing I ever saw in all my life!” (Lewis Carroll, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, 58)

1. Bobbi Humphrey - Please set me at ease
(‘Fancy Dancer’, Blue Note, 1975)
2. Sly & the Family Stone – Can’t strain my brain
(‘Small Talk’, Epic, 1974)
3. Christine Perfect – Close to me
(‘Christine Perfect, Blue Horizon, 1970)
4. Bernard Wystraete – Daydream
(‘Hits Variety’, Afa records)
5. Dj Lengua – Mi Camino
(Unicorno records, 2009)
6. Ras G & The African Space program – Brasillain dimes
(‘I of the Cosmos’, 2008)
7. Golden Music Orchestra – African Honeymoon
8. Damu the Fudgemunk - Colorful Storms (ruff instro)
(‘Spare Time’, Redefinition, 2008)
9. Mayer Hawthorne & The County - Just ain’t gonna work out
(Stonesthrow, 2008)

This is a list of feel good soul, funk, boogie and hip hop. Bouncy organs, lazy looping, and ‘ethnic’ percussion!

Also – for anyone that calls Melbourne, Australia, home, next Friday (24th july) is the third installment of my monthly bar night called ‘outfoxed’. It’s run at GeorgeLane, St. Kilda – i’ll be playing motel de moka style records from 9-1 am. Please come, and introduce yourselves!

Pic: authors. keep on bouncing, Anna!