Friday Random Ten

  1. Explosions in the Sky, "Yasmin the Light": beautiful post-rock.
  2. Kansas, "Miracles Out of Nowhere": Old Kansas - great stuff.
  3. The Flower Kings, "Starlight Man": People who've read my FRTs know
    that I pretty much worship the ground Roine Stolte walks on. Even a short,
    simple ballad like this, Stolte manages to turn into something amazing.
  4. Metaphor, "Don't Sleep": Metaphor is one of my favorite discoveries. They're
    very obscure; most proggies that I talk to haven't heard of them. But they're
    really excellent. Definitely Flower-Kings inspired, but with a very distinctive
    sound, and a great sense of humor.
  5. Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band, "Dig": Progressive Klezmer! FBKB does
    a fantastic job of mixing very traditional Klezmer with all sorts of other
    influences.
  6. Tan Dun, "Water Passion after St. Matthew": This is a masterpiece. Tan Dun
    is a really brilliant composer; this composition is inspired by Bach's
    "St. Matthew's Passion", which is one of my favorite pieces of music of all time.
    It's frequently difficult to hear the connection between Tan Dun's work,
    and what inspired it, but the connection is there.
  7. Jerry Douglas, "Takarasaka": a duet between the world's best
    Dobro player, and the world's best Bass player.
  8. Spock's Beard, "All That's Left": SB is a Genesis inspired
    neo-progressive band. They almost dissolved a few years back when their
    original leader quit the band, but since then they've developed in
    wonderful directions - they sound much less like they're trying to just
    be Genesis. This is one of my favorite songs off their most recent album.
  9. Jadis, "What Goes Around?": Something different: a Marillion inspired
    neo-prog band. They're on a label run by Steve Rothery from Marillion. They've
    got a very Marillion-like sound, but a bit more pop-ish. I still haven't
    quite decided how I feel about this album.
  10. Genesis, "Fly on a Windshield": a wonderful bit from Peter Gabriel's
    masterpiece album with Genesis.
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More like this

Since you clearly have eclectic tastes, you might want to check out Jason Ricci and New Blood, a very eclectic blues/jazz/funk/rock band. Jason is an unbelievable (as in "defying the laws of physics") harmonica player, and the band really rocks hard. To get an idea, see this video of them covering Coltrane's "Afro Blue": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n77z1z_itfU

Their new album comes out today, and they're playing at Terra Blues in NYC tomorrow night (4/22), if you're near there.

ps. yes, i know Coltrane didn't write Afro Blue. but still.

Hello, Mark!

I do enjoy the FRT, there is always a group, or artist that
either I haven't heard, or have lost track of. But I do have
one complaint.

In the caption to the Jerry Douglas piece, you refer to "the world's best Dobro player, and the world's best bass player". Now, you know better than that! I am a bassist, and I certainly have my favorite players...Victor Wooten, Stanley Clarke, Geddy, and others. There are folks out there who inspire, amaze, and captivate me...they make me look at my playing and show me new ways to think about the bass. But, at least to me, there is no "best", only favorites.

/Typical YouTube commenter mode

By BobbyEarle (not verified) on 24 Apr 2009 #permalink

Re #2:

I'll have to disagree with you there.

Edgar Meyer has pretty much redefined the role of the acoustic bass. He plays classical, jazz, and bluegrass, and he's pretty much the best there is at all of them. He recorded the Bach unaccompanied cello suites on the Bass, and in my opinion, it's a *better* performance of the suites than any of the great cellists who did it - better than Ma, better than Casals, better than Rostropovich.