“Conference of the Birds” is my weekly radio program on WNUR-FM. It airs on Tuesdays from 5-7:30 am Chicago time (UTC-5). And, of course, when technology cooperates, you can just come here for the archives. You can subscribe to the podcast with this URL. You can also see one jumbo list of my past playlists (back to 9/2008 when WNUR started online playlists), for easier searching.
Looking back, today’s show was strong on Chicago soul (including this guy called “Common Sense”) and South African jazz and groove. Also a series of tunes about buxom women to appeal to the teenage boy in each of us. The last half hour or so of the show definitely diverges from the pop orientation into more abstraction, but then William Parker, with the great voice of Leena Conquest, brings us back to the Chicago soul we started with: specifically, a cover of Curtis Mayfield’s “It’s Alright.”
(Also, I always feel obliged to point out when music I play comes from authorized free internet download opportunities: in this case Cuban Marimba Band comes from a great post at the Voice of America’s African Music Treasures blog. Grab yourself a copy!)
Listen:
download complete program (134 MB, 2 hrs 26 min)
Artist: “Track” – Album (Label)
Jerry Butler: “Only the Strong Survive” – Beg, Scream and Shout (Rhino)
Baby Huey & the Babysitters: “Hard Times” – The Baby Huey Story: The Living Legend (Water)
The Family: “Family Affair” – The Sound of Philadelphia (Soul Jazz)
Blo: “Number One” – Chapters & Phases – The Complete Albums 1973 to 1975 (Chapter One/Phase II) (Rev-ola)
The Coup: “My Favorite Mutiny” – Pick a Bigger Weapon (Epitaph)
Johnny Dyani Sextet: “Radebe” – Witchdoctor’s Son (Steeplechase)
Orchestra Baobab: “Werente Serigne” – Pirate’s Choice (Nonesuch)
Sly & the Family Stone: “If It Were Left Up to Me” – Fresh (Columbia)
The Showmen: “39-21-46″ – Beg, Scream and Shout (Rhino)
Seu Jorge: “Mania de Peitão (Large Chested Mania)” – Cru (Wrasse)
Al Reed: “99 44% Pure Love” – Wardell Quezergue: Sixty Smokin’ Soul Senders (Funky Delicacies)
Pete Miser: “For You” – For You/Just One Rhyme (self-released)
Common Sense: “They Say” – Chicago Instrumentals Volume 1 (Soul-Jazz Edition) (The T.R.O.Y. Blog)
African Jazz: “Mokonzi ya mboka” – Congolese singles 57-62 (Loningisa)
Cuban Marimba Band: “Subi Subi No. 2″ – Unreleased recording of the Cuban Marimba Band (Voice of America: African Music Treasures)
Miriam Makeba: “Quit It” – A Promise (Disques Esperance)
Mavis Staples: “Hard Times Come Again No More” – Beautiful Dreamer: The Songs of Stephen Foster (Emergent)
Chuck Barrister and the Voices of Darkness: “Be Kind, Be Foolish, Be Happy” – Soundway Records Presents The World Ends Afro Rock and Psychedelia in 1970s Nigeria (Soundway)
James Brown: “Lowdown Popcorn [Buttered Version]” – Soul Pride: The Instrumentals (1960-1969) (Polydor)
Hector Revera y su conjunto: “Yo Quisiera Ser” – Caliente = Hot: Puerto Rican and Cuban Musical Expression In New York (New World)
Zacks Nkosi: “Soso” – Freedom Blues: South African Jazz Under Apartheid (Nascente)
Chris McGregor and the Castle Lager Big Band: “Switch” – Freedom Blues: South African Jazz Under Apartheid (Nascente)
Ella Fitzgerald: “Too Darn Hot” – Sings The Cole Porter Songbook (Verve)
Neyde Fraga com Walter Wanderley e seu Conjunto: “Balanco do mar” – Balançando (Phillips)
Siouxsie & the Banshees: “The Passenger” – Through the Looking Glass (Geffen)
Phase Selector Sound: “Moving Coil” – Disassemble Dub (ROIR)
Mary Lou Williams: “Aries (Alternate Take)” – Zodiac Suite (Smithsonian Folkways)
Globe Unity Special ’75: “Evidence” – Rumbling (FMP)
The Vandermark Five: “Scootin’ About” – Free Jazz Classics Vols.1 & 2 (Atavistic)
Gato Barbieri: “Encontros” – Latino America (Impulse)
William Parker: “It’s Alright” – I Plan to Stay a Believer: The Inside Songs of Curtis Mayfield (AUM Fidelity)
