Weekly Playlist No 15

Welcome to the Cloudland Blue Weekly Playlist No 15...

Sorry this has been temporarily removed to make way for Weekly Playlist No 20 but it will return shortly for streaming - watch this space...

This week, following on from the recent sad events re my great friend and musicking colleague, Jamie Frain, Meg the Black Cat, star of this blog for over nine years, passed away peacefully on Friday night while being comforted by me and the Exec Producer...

So I couldn't not include her famous background vocals performance on the CBQ song “Love and War” from my 2007 album “Deeperdown”...

The podcast ends with a quarter of what may be the single disc version of the next CBQ album. Much of this music work was done with Meg sitting beside me on the desk, giving me her input...

Other than that, there are tracks from this week's various purchases, downloads and borrowings; five pieces by some of the acts I will see next weekend in London at the Denovali Swingfest for experimental music; an Alice Cooper trilogy, mixing one of his best known songs with two pieces from the band's earliest work; Ex-Capital Model, Nicky Hind's favourite James Jamieson song plus an excerpt from a piece written by Nicky in 1989; and, just generally interesting stuff from King Crimson, Fripp, Eno and The Bad Plus...

Again, no chat from me (other than the notes below), just the music - hope you enjoy it...

King Crimson - Radio II – Thrak

A quiet opening to proceedings this week, a short soundscape from King Crimson's “comeback” album from 1995, “Thrak”...

Krokofant - Bodega – Krokofant

A great jazzy progfest from Norwegian trio Krokofant, discovered by chance this week whist trawling the internet for new music – the track comes from their self-tilted debut, available from Rune Grammophon – for those of you with a more gentle disposition, maybe fast forwarding through this wonderful cacophony would be for the best – but I recommend you stick with it...

Fripp & Eno - Evening Star - Evening Star

One of my all time favourite pieces of music – which I've tried to “cover” twice myself. Of course, I could never compare to the beautiful brilliance of the original...

Elephants of Scotland - TFAY - Execute and Breathe

Another new discovery – these guys are neither elephants nor from Scotland. The prog rock quintet hail from Vermont USA and this is from their second album, available now on Bandcamp, another chance discovery of the week...

Cloudland Blue Quartet - The Golden Leaf (Edit) - Twenty Four Paintings

A short piece from your correspondent, the full 35 minute version of which was enjoyed this week – I'm still working towards a release this year of this new CBQ music...

Fauré - Piano Quartet #1 In C Minor, 2 Scherzo: Allegro Vivo

 Fauré Piano Quartet #1; Franck Piano Quintet

Berio - Polka - Katia & Marielle Labèque : Encore!

Janáček - Violin Sonata, 3 Allegretto

 Bartók; Janáček: Violin Sonatas; Messiaen: Theme & Variations

Three classical pieces taken from three albums picked up in the charity shops of Stockbridge last Sunday...

Alice Cooper - BB on Mars - Pretties For You

Alice Cooper - Poison - Trash

Alice Cooper - Reflected - Easy Action

A trilogy of Coopersongs – his 1989 worldwide hit “Poison” is bookended by a track each from the original band's first two albums, which were re-released in a double LP package, “Schooldays”, in 1973, on the back of the Alice Cooper Group being the biggest band in the world at the time – for those looking for “School's Out” type material, let's just say the music on offer may have come as a surprise – it certainly did for me...

James Jamieson - Trash Can Secrets - Precious

Ex Capital Model Nicky Hind sent an e-mail from his home in California to advise he was enjoying listening to Jamie's album, which I added to Bandcamp last weekend. He chose this song as his favourite track...

Nicky Hind - Spiral III – Spiral

...and also directed me to some of his own impressive, classical-centric work for bass clarinet, string quartet and piano – this created using Sibelius software...

The Bad Plus - The Sacrifice: Glorification of the Chosen One - The Rite of Spring

One of my favourite recent acquisitions remains the new album from The Bad Plus – listened to again this week and so featured here...

Piano Interrupted - Emoticon - Denovali Swingfest 2014 London

Anne von Hausswolff - Epitaph of Theodor - Denovali Swingfest 2014 London

Origamibiro - Odham's Standard - Denovali Swingfest 2014 London

Origamibiro - Ada Deane - Denovali Swingfest 2014 London

Piano Interrupted - Cross Hands - Denovali Swingfest 2014 London

A selection of pieces from the free sampler issued this week by the record label Denovali, featuring tracks by artists who will appear at their London Swingfest next weekend. Mr CBQ will be attending for the second year running...

The O'Jays - Backstabber (12" Mix) - Philadelphia International Classics

The Tom Moulton Remixes

A track from a four CD box set picked up at the music library this week, featuring remixes by Tom Moulton of the catalogue of the Philadelphia International label, which seems to have been a hit factory for the work of Gamble, Huff, McFadden and Whitehead, given that almost every song, despite the performers involved, was written by a combination of those four songsmiths...

Cloudland Blue Quartet - For Meg the Black Cat

A short field recording of the sounds Meg the Black Cat liked to listen to as she sat out in the back garden...

John Surman - As If We Knew - Adventure Playground

John Abercrombie - Descending Grace - Class Trip

David Torn - Ak – Prezens

Three tracks from albums on the ECM label, bought on what turned out to be Meg's last day. The Surman track especially seemed a fitting send off to our wee friend...

Cloudland Blue Quartet - Love and War - Deeperdown

(Featuring Meg the Black Cat on Backing Vocals)

Meg could never see something happening in the house without wanting to join in in some way. When I was recording my album “Deeperdown” back in 2005, Meg would come into the room where I was working and vocalise in the background. I took one of these wee utterances and worked it into the song - Go Meg!!

Cloudland Blue Quartet - Twenty Four Paintings III - Twenty Four Paintings

(Single Disc Version)

And, finally, this week's two hours of fun is rounded off with a collage of short edits from six of the twenty four pieces set for the next CBQ album. Much of this work was done in the very early hours of the morning - 4am to 6am or so, with copious amounts of coffee to hand and, as mentioned above, Meg the Black Cat sitting next to me on the desk, giving me her support of course...

Hope you enjoy the podcast and will pop by again next week...