The Burning Dervish Podcast is your guide to interesting and unexpected music from across the globe.
Episode Nineteen - RareNoiseRecords: UK-based RareNoiseRecords is a unique enterprise in our times: an outlet for musicians from which one can conclude that artistic freedom coexists with indifference to genre, a place where taste and commitment to interesting sounds seem to carry the day. This episode of the Burning Dervish Podcast features the music of several recent RareNoise releases. View the Playlist | Download (right click and save)
Episode Eighteen - Hopeful Melody: Whether the product of voices in English, French, or a thousand tribal dialects, the breath through a horn or flute, or a plucked kora, it is melody that tells the true stories of Africa's struggle, liberation, celebration and despair. View the Playlist | Download (right click and save)
Episode Seventeen - What the Future Used to Sound Like: Much of the music in this episode is truly of the "timeless" variety. An overused word, for sure, but rather than stretch for synonyms, let's call it what it is. Whether it is recording techniques, instrumentation, or composition, a significant portion of the songs in this mix could have been recorded today. Or 35 years ago. View the Playlist | Download (right click and save)
Episode Sixteen - David Crosby: David Crosby is a stone cold hippy. He didn't go Hollywood, he went the other way around when he left the Byrds and their LA scene for the Bay Area. An episode devoted to this music and Cros's career seems in order...View the Playlist | Download (right click and save)
Episode Fifiteen - Tend Your Garden: Music calls and is a calling. It calls to rejoice, to resist, to praise and to devotion, to think and also to contemplate. It calls for dedication, diligence and sacrifice. In this episode, the call goes out and is answered by musicians from Iran, Ethiopia, Cuba and Jamaica. What are they hearing? What are they compelled to do? What are they asking of the listener? View the Playlist | Download (right click and save)
Episode Fourteen - El Saber es Fuerza: Latin rhythm and melody make up some of the most consistently adaptable yet resilient and recognizable music around. Diverse, too. You cannot talk about post-WWII culture or politics in the Americas without reckoning with Latin music and musicians. This is barely a start...Episode Options: View the playlist | Download (right click and save)
Episode Thirteen - Fire Before Cool: What's in a name? In this case, reality. We start with a Jamaican soul-dub scorcher from Wackie's Rhythm Force and it gets hotter from there...but we won't let you burn...this set wraps up on a cool note with Nubian oud master musician, Hamza El Din.Episode Options: View the playlist | Download (right click and save)
Episode Twelve - The Dervish's Side of the Moon: Pink Floyd's classic The Dark Side of the Moon stands up to all comers: a capella vocals groups, Rastafarians, jazz quartets, prog rockers, club kids, jam bands and even string quartets. The proof is in this episode of the Burning Dervish podcast...Featuring performances by Vocomotion, Easy Star All-Stars, Rick Wakeman, John Wetton, Vitamin String Quartet, Phish and others. Episode Options: View the playlist | Download (right click and save)
Episode Eleven - Tales from the Concert Crypt: January 2012 was a good month for jazz shows in New York City, with more shows than I could sneak out for. Of the four I did catch, I was lucky to score recordings of each. The sound quality might not be up to the standard you're used to here, but the performances are well worth it. Episode Options: View the playlist | Download (right click and save)
Episode Ten - The Majesty of King Tubby: If King Tubby did not invent dub, it hardly matters who did. With hundreds, or even thousands, of sides standing witness to his wizardry, he elevated the form to an exalted level. Episode Options: View the playlist | Download (right click and save)
Episode Nine - McCoy Tyner 1961: This music was recorded over a six month span in 1961 and illustrates the breakneck speed with which jazz was transforming. Episode Options: View the playlist | Download (right click and save)
Episode Eight - 2011 - A Year in Music: I want to share a bunch of songs that I enjoyed discovering throughout 2011, all from records released during the calendar year. I have no idea if this was the "best" music issued or even what that means but I hope your ears are tickled and your curiosity is piqued enough to dig in further. Episode Options: View the playlist | Download (right click and save)
Episode Seven - R&B Lost and Found: Not all of the 15 tracks here are totally obscure but I don't think many of them get spun on your local oldies station, either. Episode Options: View the playlist | Download (right click and save)
Episode Six - Back Door Slam: Every few years a pop artist or group comes along that conjures up the sounds of one "golden age" or another. For about 15 minutes 20 years it ago it was Lenny Kravitz. More recently, we had Amy Winehouse and just this year, Adele. Many of these artists fashion superstar careers mining this retro gold. Others register barely a blip. For this episode of the Burning Dervish Podcast, we are going to focus on one of those lesser-known artists who hit the scene, made some noise and went their separate ways. Episode Options: View the playlist | Download (right click and save)
Episode Five - McCoy Tyner 1960 & 61: Across just nine months in 1960 and 61, pianist McCoy Tyner played on a variety of sessions that together serve as a concise illustration of the ground bop was ceding to modality, melody and more. During this time, he began his tenure and apprenticeship with saxophonist John Coltrane, led his own first sessions and participated in the creation of music whose excitement and ingenuity has yet to be surpassed. Episode Options: View the playlist | Download (right click and save)
Episode Four - Exiles from Eden: Two nations - Ethiopia and Jamaica - connected by one people, much common lore and shared yearnings for repatriation and unification. Music is another shared connection. Bear witness here. Episode Options: View the playlist | Download (right click and save)
Episode Three - McCoy Tyner 1959 & 60: This episode, the first in a series focusing on the piano great, is inspired by my love and admiration for his work as a sideman and leader over the last 50+ years. The songs chosen here are adapted from a playlist I originally created for the website AllAboutJazz.com. Episode Options: View the playlist | Download (right click and save)
Episode Two - African Threads: Come experience the influence of Africa on Western music and that music's effect, in turn, on the musicians of the Dark Continent. The strands are all here. Let's grab one and pull. Episode Options: View the playlist | Download (right click and save)
Episode One - Lion Roam: Over these 70 minutes or so we rack up the miles, traveling from the Lower East Side of Manhattan, to Africa via Jamaica, on into India and Persia. We listen in on Dubbers, Drummers, Mystics and Toasters. Episode Options: View the playlist | Download (right click and save)