Musical Interlude

Gonna go all WFMU on the blog this week and hit you with some tunes that can only be termed: instrumental exotica.

But first, some of you want to know what's going on with the Ira/new slice contest. The man himself assures me that there's still time to get yer choices in – just click on ol' Feter Shmuel on the right, there, and then scroll down to leave your musical selection in the comments. No idea what he thinks about your groovy selections, but the KassaNostra is very pleased with the options. Regardless of how the slice turns out, I think a fan appreciation post is in order. Maybe before we take our annual summer hiatus.

On to the music! First up, we got us Elmer Snowden's banjo-licious take on the Twelfth Street Rag. Even you anti-folk dance heathens out there dig this tune. When Kinderland gets down with the rag, it gets down with Pee Wee Hunt's 1948 version on Capitol Records – that disc was Billboard's number-one single for that year, selling over three million copies. (Oddly enough, from a sheer numbers perspective, that may make it the single most popular song in the Tolland canon. Crazy, man.) Someday I'll post the Hunt version, along with a few others since there's thousands of covers out there. But for today, I'm sticking with Snowden, a jazz-era banjoist and bandleader. Don't know why this particular version tickles the KassaNostra's fancy so, but it does. One caveat: Snowden leaves out the throw-your-hands-in-the-air bridge, so if you're gonna try dancing to this, be careful not to get tripped up.

Elmer Snowden: Twelfth Street Rag



Never underestimate the power of a good instrumental. In 1962, the Ventures – surf-rockers of Run Don't Walk fame – brought rock 'n' roll to Japan. Seriously! With no language barrier to overcome, their tour of the Far East touched off the eleki buumu – the "electric boom" that had local manufacturers scrambling to meet the needs of guitar-hungry youth. When the Ventures returned in 1965 (unaware of the mayhem they had wrought), they were greeted with Beatlemania-level pandemonium. One of the first local guitar heroes to emerge in their shadow was Takeshi Terauchi, a fuzztone master on par with Dick Dale or Link Wray.

Now, surf-rock is one of those genres wherein literally any song can be covered in the vernacular of frenetic guitar chords, and Terauchi's impressive oeuvre does not disappoint in this regard. And yet, I was shocked – nay, gobsmacked – to find a copy of Dona Dona on one of his albums from 1966. I mean, I've seen Dona Dona covers before, but always on albums like this. Or this. How the hell did a Yiddishkeit folksong find its way to Japan? (As with most things, I find it easy to blame the hippies.)

I have to admit, before I heard Terauchi's take, I got inappropriately excited that he was gonna positively shred this sucker. Sad to say, it's pretty much a straight cover, as respectfully mournful as a surf-guitar cover of anything can be. I get the feeling, though, that Terauchi wasn't entirely sure how to tackle this, because he throws the kitchen sink at it: flamenco guitar riffs, circus organ, every bell and (literally) whistle imaginable. It's no masterpiece, but a fine cut nonetheless.

Takeshi Terauchi & His Blue Jeans: Dona Dona



Irving Fields was a nice Jewish boy. Then he fell in love with Latin Music. Then he started combining Latin rhythms with Jewish music, starting in 1946, when his Miami Beach Rhumba was recorded by Xavier Cugat. Fields helped drive an all-things-Latin craze among post-war middle class Jews, as unlikely as that sounds (Cugat was shocked to learn he couldn't speak Spanish). The success of 1959's Bagels and Bongos spawned first a sequel, then a string of ________ and Bongos albums, milking the Latin sound waaaay past any reasonable sense of tolerability. Or maybe not, since he's been rediscovered by the Esquivel-worshiping hipster set. Anyway, two things: one, anybody who names a song Havannah Negila is okay in my book. And two, his take on Die Grine Kuzine – recast as The Green Cousin-Merengue on Fields' 1960 LP More Bagels and Bongos – transitions so smoothly, it makes you wonder if some shyster didn't rip off a nice Cuban boychik back in the day.

Irving Fields Trio: The Green Cousin-Merengue



Finally, here's Moses Dillard & The Tex-Town Display, with their rendition of Matchmaker. Dillard was a session guitarist, working at various points with Otis Redding, James & Bobby Purify, and Mighty Sam McClain. None of the projects he led ever really took off, including the Tex-Town Display, which only lasted three or four years. It's most notable accomplishment was to feature a young Peabo Bryson on backing vocals (which, since this is an instrumental number, means I'm gonna hear from the legions of ex-Kinderland Bryson fans). It's a not a bad tune at all – starts off with some Coletrane-esque noodling, and shifts into a guitar that veers dangerously close to elevator music, before righting itself about halfway through. Jerry Bock would no doubt be pleased.

Moses Dillard & The Tex-Town Displays: Matchmaker



Next time: lyrics! (Maybe.) Meanwhile, keep those slice suggestions coming.

Peace & Vinyl,
The KassaNostra

The 10 Days of Pesach: Day 10

EXODUS 12:1 And the LORD spoke unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying: 2 'This month shall be unto you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. 3 Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying: In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household; 4 and if the household be too little for a lamb, then shall he and his neighbour next unto his house take one according to the number of the souls; according to every man's eating ye shall make your count for the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year; ye shall take it from the sheep, or from the goats; 6 and ye shall keep it unto the fourteenth day of the same month; and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at dusk. 7 And they shall take of the blood, and put it on the two side-posts and on the lintel, upon the houses wherein they shall eat it. 8 And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; with bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9 Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; its head with its legs and with the inwards thereof. 10 And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; but that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire. 11 And thus shall ye eat it: with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste--it is the LORD'S passover. 12 For I will go through the land of Egypt in that night, and will smite all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD. 13 And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and there shall no plague be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt. 14 And this day shall be unto you for a memorial, and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.

The Pharcyde: Passing Me By

Happy Passover '10 everyone... now go enjoy your freedom from oppression, and also leavened stuff.

The 10 Days of Pesach: Day 9

EXODUS 10:21 And the LORD said unto Moses: 'Stretch out thy hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt.' 22 And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days; 23 they saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days; but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings. 24 And Pharaoh called unto Moses, and said: 'Go ye, serve the LORD; only let your flocks and your herds be stayed; let your little ones also go with you.' 25 And Moses said: 'Thou must also give into our hand sacrifices and burnt-offerings, that we may sacrifice unto the LORD our God. 26 Our cattle also shall go with us; there shall not a hoof be left behind; for thereof must we take to serve the LORD our God; and we know not with what we must serve the LORD, until we come thither.' 27 But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let them go. 28 And Pharaoh said unto him: 'Get thee from me, take heed to thyself, see my face no more; for in the day thou seest my face thou shalt die.' 29 And Moses said: 'Thou hast spoken well; I will see thy face again no more.'

The Darkness: I Believe in a Thing Called Love

The 10 Days of Pesach: Day 8

EXODUS 10:12 And the LORD said unto Moses: 'Stretch out thy hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come up upon the land of Egypt, and eat every herb of the land, even all that the hail hath left.' 13 And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the LORD brought an east wind upon the land all that day, and all the night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts. 14 And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the borders of Egypt; very grievous were they; before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such. 15 For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left; and there remained not any green thing, either tree or herb of the field, through all the land of Egypt.

The Bugs: Slide

The 10 Days of Pesach: Day 7

EXODUS 9:22 And the LORD said unto Moses: 'Stretch forth thy hand toward heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, upon man, and upon beast, and upon every herb of the field, throughout the land of Egypt.' 23 And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven; and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and fire ran down unto the earth; and the LORD caused to hail upon the land of Egypt. 24 So there was hail, and fire flashing up amidst the hail, very grievous, such as had not been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. 25 And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and broke every tree of the field. 26 Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no hail.

Etta James: Stormy Weather

The 10 Days of Pesach: Day 6

EXODUS 9:8 And the LORD said unto Moses and unto Aaron: 'Take to you handfuls of soot of the furnace, and let Moses throw it heavenward in the sight of Pharaoh. 9 And it shall become small dust over all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt.' 10 And they took soot of the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses threw it up heavenward; and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon man and upon beast. 11 And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils; for the boils were upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians. 12 And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had spoken unto Moses.

Violent Femmes: Blister in the Sun

The 10 Days of Pesach: Day 5

EXODUS 9:1 Then the LORD said unto Moses: 'Go in unto Pharaoh, and tell him: Thus saith the LORD, the God of the Hebrews: Let My people go, that they may serve Me. 2 For if thou refuse to let them go, and wilt hold them still, 3 behold, the hand of the LORD is upon thy cattle which are in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the herds, and upon the flocks; there shall be a very grievous murrain. 4 And the LORD shall make a division between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt; and there shall nothing die of all that belongeth to the children of Israel.' 5 And the LORD appointed a set time, saying: 'Tomorrow the LORD shall do this thing in the land.' 6 And the LORD did that thing on the morrow, and all the cattle of Egypt died; but of the cattle of the children of Israel died not one. 7 And Pharaoh sent, and, behold, there was not so much as one of the cattle of the Israelites dead. But the heart of Pharaoh was stubborn, and he did not let the people go.

Gang of Four: Love Like Anthrax