Invisible Visionaries - the playlists

[Charlie]

Joe Boyd - American producer who helped found British folk rock and played a major role in the emergence of World Music.

seq - artist - song title - album - yr - label

1 - Eric Weissberg & Eric Mandell - Duelling Banjos - Deliverance Soundtrack - 72 - Warner

2 - Pink Floyd - Arnold Layne - Echoes - 67 - EMI

3 - Nick Drake - Time Has Told Me - Five Leaves Left - 70 - Island

4 - Maria Muldaur - Midnight at the Oasis - Maria Muldaur - 74 - Reprise

5 - Kate & Anna McGarrigle - Foolish You - Kate & Anna McGarrigle - 75 - Hannibal

6 - James Booker - Make a Better World - Junco Partner - 76 - Hannibal

7 - Songhai - Jarabi - Songhai 2 - 88 - Hannibal

White Bicycles, the first instalment of Joe's autobiography, is published by Serpents Tail in June

Joe Boyd will play Radio Ping Pong on Radio London on Saturday May 6

[Charlie]

In an abberation during this programme I said that Maria and Geoff Muldaur were brother and sister.

Lydia Savage sent this dry email:

I think it is unlikely that Maria D'Amato Muldaur was Geoffrey Muldaur's sister. We lived up the road from the Muldaurs when Geoffrey and my brother went to school together and there were no Marias in the family. And when they started in the Kweskin jug band Maria was still a D'Amato although they married about that time. By the time she got around to using his name (c 1974) I think they were just about to split up - when I don't know as I had lost touch.

Of course they carried on working together after she made "Midnight at the Oasis". I would love to know what he is doing now.

This is not the first time I have heard someone say they were brother and sister on the Beeb.

I wonder where the idea came from?

---------------------------------------

The gaffe is all my own work, Lydia.

Regarding Geoff, he is coming to the UK in April/May and we were hoping he could come and play Radio Ping Pong, but we don't both have the same Saturday free for it.

[NormanD]

Geoff..is coming to the UK in April/May and we were hoping he could come and play Radio Ping Pong, but we don't both have the same Saturday free for it.

Tour dates are:
22/04/06 STAMFORD ARTS CENTRE
25/04/06 LEICESTER, MUSICIAN
26/04/06 LONDON, BORDERLINE
27/04/06 NOTTINGHAM, RUNNING HORSE
28/04/06 NORFOLK ARTS CENTRE
29/04/06 LONDON, RESONATOR CENTRE (WORKSHOP - 1:00PM)
30/04/06 BRIGHTON THE GREYS
03/05/06 GLENFARG, SCOTLAND THE BEIN INN
04/05/06 EDINBURGH THE LOT
05/05/06 STIRLING TOLBOOTH
06/05/06 MELROSE THE WYND
08/05/06 ULAPOOL CEILIDH PLACE

Please go see him, he's wonderful! You won't be disappointed.

Norman

[RobHall]

I'm afraid that I missed this show when broadcast (it clashed with the African Soul Rebels gig in Basingstoke) but, just listening to it now, I'm thinking:

(a) Joe Boyd has been involved in some truly great music over the years. The man must have something going for him, over and above being in the right place at the right time. Consumate good taste, probably.

(b) Junko Partner didn't disappear without trace entirely. Just last month I replaced my old scratched vinyl copy with an online (MP3) purchase. If anyone is interested, it's available via eMusic. (A quick check shows the CD available via Amazon too.)

(c) Hey Charlie, how come you didn't play anything from Joe's Yockamo All Stars' "Dew Drop Out" album? Now there's another JB-produced album that disappeared without trace. He came on your show just after making it, played a track, and I was smitten. A fantastic mix of funky, jazzy, RnB... you name it, all the good stuff. With drumming to die for. If you can get your hands on a copy of this gem, take my advice and snap it up. If you already own it: dig it out and put it on.

Rob

[Charlie]

seq - artist - song title - album - yr - country - World Circuit cat no

1 - Los Zafiros - Bossa Cubana - Bossa Cubana - 63 - Cuba - WCD056

2 - Orchestra Baobab - Utru Horas - Pirates Choice - 82 - Senegal - WCD 014

3 - Ali Farke Toure & Ry Cooder - Diaraby - Talking Timbuktu - 94 - Mali - WCD 040

4 - Radio Tarifa - Rumba Argelina - Rumba Argelina - 94 - Spain - WCD 042

5 - Guillermo Portobales - El Carratero - El Carratero - 75 - Cuba - WCD 043

6 - Buena Vista Social Club - Chan Chan - Buena Vista Social Club - 98 - Cuba - WCD 050

7 - Oumou Sangare - Yala - Oumou - 2004 - Mali - WCD 067

[Charlie]

seq - artist - song - yr - album - label

produced by Nick Lowe:

1 - Graham Parker and the Rumour - Back to Schooldays - 76 - Vertigo - Vertigo

2 - Elvis Costello - Less Than Zero (*) - 77 - My Aim is True - Edsel

3 - Wreckless Eric - Whole Wide World - 77 - Stiff Box - Metro

4 - Nick Lowe - I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass - 78 - The Doings - Demon

5 - Pretenders - Stop Your Sobbin' - 79 - Greatest Hits - Warner

produced by Elvis Costello

6 - Squeeze - Is That Love? - 81 - Big Squeeze - A&M

7 - Specials - Nelson Mandela - 84 - Stereo-Typical - Chrysalis

(*) initially incorrectly listed as 'Watching the Detectives', see correction below by Hugh Weldon

[Adam Blake]

Charlie:
I think "Second Line" refers to the procession behind a funeral, as Gaz implies. I think because the "first line" are the family and friends of the deceased - but as far as I know, "second line" has come to be used as a generic term for the polyrhythms that are so central to Louisiana music, and in particular New Orleans. Also sometimes referred to as "haircut and shave, two bits", which if you say it loud sounds like what is commonly known as a Bo Diddley beat (which in turn comes from what is known as a clave - 123,123,123,123,1234). There are many illustrations but one particularly graphic example that springs to mind is "Longhair's Blues Rhumba" recorded by Professor Longhair for Atlantic Records in about 1949. As the title suggests it is a hybrid: the piano left hand plays a simple boogie pattern in straight time while the right hand and percussion plays highly syncopated triplets over the top. The Professor himself refers to it as "the gimmick that I made" in the wonderful film about New Orleans piano styles titled "Piano Players Rarely Ever Play Together". In other words, in technical terms, it's funky as hell - as any fule kno...
But Louis Armstrong recorded an extended version of "Didn't He Ramble" sometime before this where the same polyrhythms are arranged for a full band. It kicks like a mule and it would be totally wunderbar if you were to play it sometime. It's from a 10" Brunswick lp named "New Orleans Days" and I don't think it's ever been re-released on cd (except possibly buried in some 25 cd box set.) If it has please do let me know. My copy is totally knackered! It also contains a jawdroppingly cool version of "The Bucket's Got A Hole In It" - a traditional 8 bar blues New Orleans drinking song much admired by the boys in the band...
Cheers
Adam

[Hugh Weldon]

Unless my ears are deceiving me Charlie didn't play Watching the Detectives as the second track on this programme, but Costello's first single Less Than Zero.

[Charlie]

Unless my ears are deceiving me Charlie didn't play Watching the Detectives as the second track on this programme, but Costello's first single Less Than Zero.

Your ears serve you well, Hugh.

I made a last minute change while doing the show, but forgot to change my track-listing.

By the time I came to post it, there had been a gap of a month during which my brain had turned to dust (as you already noted in my quiz confusion on BBC London last week).

To avoid misleading everybody else, I've edited the playlist and noted your correction.

[David Godwin]

.john' s big buddywas the great guitarist Jorma kaukonen,whose great friend was Jack Casady -The great bass player,who played on the hendrix masterpiece electric ladyland

[Charlie]

john' s big buddy was the great guitarist Jorma kaukonen

I think this might be referring to John Hammond Jr, son of producer John Hammond profiled in the first programme of this series.

John Jr is an interesting character in his own right, a contemporary of Bob Dylan in the Greenwich Village coffee house scene, whose backing band Dylan borrowed for his first electric tour, the guys who had once been Ronnie Hawkins' Hawks and who were later to become the nucleus of The Band.

[Charlie]

Ben Mandelson (aka Dr Hijaz Mustapha)
A&R for Globestyle Records;
player of guitar, saz and anything else with strings and a resonator;
record producer

seq - artist - song - yr - album - country - label

1 - 3 Mississippistaphas 3 - When the War Was On - 2002 - Dark was the Night - UK - Deep Sea

2 - Ofra Haza - Im Nin Alu - 1984 - Yemenite Songs - Israel - Globestyle

3 - Maurice El Medioni - Moel' Medio - 1996 - Café Oran - Algeria - Piranha

4 - Salamat - Wainek (feat Salwa Abou Griesha) - 1998 - Ezzayakoum - Egypt - Piranha

5 - Chango Spasiuk - Mi Bien Amada - 2004 - Tarefero De Mis Pagos - Argentina - Piranha

6 - Shiyani Ngcobo - uDadewtha - 2004 - Introducing Shiyani Ngcobo - South Africa - Introducing