#singing drummers

[internationalsadhits]

Hamza El Din, filmed by Robert Garfias, 1970.

Found this passage in a history of the guitar written by Tom and Mary Anne Evans:

“For years guitars were used in jazz solely as rhythm instruments, as six-string drums which provided a beat.” [my italics]

The quote is about New Orleans music, but Hamza El Din’s oud playing is to me the perfect example of strings as percussion - it’s no wonder that Mickey Hart became a champion of his work. On his first album, recorded by ethnomusicologist Robert Garfias for Nonesuch, Hamza El Din even included a song without oud at all - accompanying his voice just on the tar. Garfias documented that same tune on film, so we get to see the drum played as a stringless oud.

[oarworm]

True Affection - Father John Misty

[bycrookedcornell]

Queen was on TV live and Roger Taylor was doing backing vocals.

[internationalsadhits]

A Hawk and a Hacksaw, "I Am Not a Gambling Man," 2009.

Naomi and I have toured to some very generic rock clubs together with Jeremy Barnes and Heather Trost, but wherever we were they made the room feel like it was made for music. And if the PA wasn't... they stepped away from it. This film captures them in their home state of New Mexico, and has forever changed my understanding of the "fade-out."

"Yes, we still play weddings, bar mitzvahs, circumcisions, quinceañeras, saints day feasts, general parties, etc." - http://ahawkandahacksaw.net/

[internationalsadhits]

Nina Simone and Emile Latimer performing "Black Is The Color of My True Love's Hair," U. Mass Amherst, June 1969.

A few months later, Simone and Latimer would record this same arrangement at Philharmonic Hall (now Avery Fisher Hall) in New York, for her live Black Gold album. Latimer is a drummer who was touring with Richie Havens when Simone drafted him as a guitarist for her band. He remembered Simone telling him, about his version of "Black is the Color": “You played and wrote what I wanted to write. You’ll sing that in my show.”

[internationalsadhits]

Jerry visits the Carpenters, 1972. Jerry Dunphy was anchorman for LA station KNXT's "The Big News" - the template for Ted Baxter and other fictional, silver-haired newscasters. "Karen, one thing that's always been in short supply is pretty girl drummers. How did this all get started?"

[internationalsadhits]

Nass el Ghiwane, 1972 - w/ Boujimaa (the singer with the drum on his shoulder)

[crazychester]

I never liked Joshua, I got tired of J: Father John Misty - Fear Fun

In the middle of January two pieces of news about Fleet Foxes drummer J. Tillman were announced. First he was leaving Fleet Foxes and second he was shedding the J. Tillman name to return as Father John Misty. 

I loved J's 2009 album Vacilando Territory Blues, and although I never got around to purchasing any of his subsequent albums (mainly due to their existence being extremely poorly publicised) I was excited to hear this new material.

The next I heard was his familiar tones on a video a friend was watching, starring the wonderful Aubrey Plaza. However, due to its more electrified-than-expected sound, I didn't realise that Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings was indeed the artist formerly known as Josh until I saw his new moniker on the video's title screen, and his familiar long hair and beard as he stuffed the Parks and Recreation star into the back of a white van.

If Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings was a curveball, the next song I heard was even more unexpected. Nancy From Now On (The above video) is a great song, dripping in soft rock production and vocals, and with lyrics evoking the overt sexuality of John Grant's fantastic 2010 Queen of Denmark. You don't have to be Roland Barthes to understand that the video's shave and haircut is representative of Misty shedding his former folk rock image, for something that, at least on the surface, is slightly more mainstream and poppy.

All in all, Fear Fun is a fantastic album, including traces of everything from Rufus Wainwright-esque baroque pop, to pure Sweetheart of the Rodeo-era Byrds country. It might be unexpected, but it's absolutely fantastic, and here's to hoping he achieves some notoriety in front of the drum kit, just as he had it behind it.