I’m feeling some hefty musical cravings at the moment. It’s not that I don’t listen to music everyday, but I miss the adventure of discovering music. With limited Internet, I can no longer roam freely across cyberspace like I used to, downloading random bass music podcasts at a whim, or greedily snatching obscure albums from blogs such as WFMU.
It’s not just an Internet limitation, it’s physical too. I miss the feeling of holding music, gazing at the artwork of album sleeves and sitting down to read the sleeve notes. Then there’s the ritual of taking vinyl from sleeve to platter, hearing amplified dust particles crackle as the needle works it’s way to the first beat. Then the music itself.
The extent of my cravings became apparent after my friend Forest teased me with an email of his current musical pleasures, including several links to youtube videos. One such tune was the Don Pullen George Adams Quartet - Serenade for Sariah, a piece of jazz that bustles at a pace that makes Kenyan runners look slow. In the words of Forrest:
On the jazz front we have to give it up right away to the post-bop piano virtuoso Don Pullen, who together with tenor sax man George Adams and their quartet, swept through a series of bad-nasty European live and recording dates in the eighties. I’m loving their 1986 Blue Note album Breakthrough at the moment, complete with liner notes by Amiri Baraka, who praises their ‘mutually enfunkifying balance’ and shit, but samples are, as is so often the case, not available on YouTube for licensing reasons, so another recording will have to do…Great band though.
Then I found a couple of East African music blogs a few days ago. A directory of East African vinyl and an African music blog called Likembe. I ashamed to say that I haven’t delved into the Kenyan music scene. I truly believe there is good music to be unearthed here, but I imagine it’s hidden deep. These reading materials should help. Let the journey begin.
