Episode 15 (Sounds New festival Cuckooland special)
1. Robert Wyatt — "Beware" (from Cuckooland, 2003)
2. Robert Wyatt — "Trickle Down" (from Cuckooland, 2003)
3. Gilad Atzmon & The Orient House Ensemble — "Tel Aviv" (from Songs of the Metropolis, 2013)
4. Roxy Music — "Sea Breezes" (from Roxy Music, 1972)
5. Robert Wyatt — "Old Europe" (from Cuckooland, 2003)
6. Miles Davis — "The Maids of Cadiz" (from Miles Ahead, 1957)
7. Robert Wyatt — "Alliance" (from Old Rottenhat, 1985)
8. Robert Wyatt — "Just a Bit" (from Cuckooland, 2003)
9. David Gilmour — "And Then I Close My Eyes" [excerpt] (live at the Royal Albert Hall, London, May 2006)
10. Robert Wyatt — "Forest" (from Cuckooland, 2003)
11. Nick Mason's Fictitious Sports (feat. Robert Wyatt) — "Wervin'" (from Nick Mason's Fictitious Sports, 1981)
12. The Carla Bley Band — "Wrong Key Donkey" (from European Tour 1977, 1978)
13. Robert Wyatt — "Life is Sheep" (from Cuckooland, 2003)
14. Robert Wyatt — "Lullaby For Hamza" → silence (from Cuckooland, 2003)
[guest selection from Robert Wyatt(!)]
15. Louis Prima — "Night Train" (from The Wildest!, 1957)
16. Duke Ellington — "The Mooche" (B-side of 10" 78RPM single, 1933)
17. Igor Stravinsky — "The Rite of Spring, part 2: The Sacrifice" (Belgian Radio and Television Orchestra, Alexander Rahbari conductor, 1943)
18. John Coltrane — "Minor Blues" (from Africa/Brass, 1961)
19. Charles Mingus — "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat", "Boogie Stop Shuffle" (from Mingus Ah-Um, 1959)
20. Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five — "West End Blues" (10" 78RPM single, 1929)
21. Nina Simone — "I Put a Spell On You" (7" single, 1965)
22. Dionne Warwick — "A House Is Not a Home" (7" single, 1964)
23. Billie Holiday — "He Ain't Got Rhythm" (10" 78RPM single, 1937)
24. Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis — "Georgia On My Mind" (live at the Lincoln Center, NYC, January 2007)
25. Eno — "The True Wheel" (from Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy), 1974)
26. 801 — "East of Asteroid" (from 801 Live, 1976)
27. Comicoperando — "Gloria Gloom" (recorded live in Amsterdam, 2011-05-19)
[Annie Whitehead and Dagmar Krause on Robert Wyatt]
28. Slapp Happy (featuring Robert Wyatt) — "A Little Something" (from session for BBC Radio One's John Peel Show, 1974-06-25, released on RW's Flotsam Jetsam, 1994)
[Annie Whitehead on meeting Robert Wyatt]
29. The Orchestra That Fell To Earth — "Air à Danser" (live at The Lighthouse, Deal, 2014-02-15)
30. Caravan — "Bobbing Wide" (from session for BBC Radio One, 1976-05-06, released on Ether Way, 1998)
31. Robert Wyatt — "La Ahada Yalam (No-one Knows)" (from Cuckooland, 2003)
32. Gilad Atzmon & The Orient House Ensemble — "Berlin" (from Songs of the Metropolis, 2013)
33. Robert Wyatt — "Mister E" (from Cuckooland, 2003)
[Karen Mantler on Robert Wyatt]
34. Michael Mantler — "The Doubtful Guest" (from The Hapless Child and other Inscrutable Stories, 1976)
35. Comicoperando — "Alifib" (recorded live in Amsterdam, 2011-05-19)
36. Robert Wyatt — "Lullaloop" (from Cuckooland, 2003)
37. Paul Weller — "Song For Alice" (from 22 Dreams, 2008)
38. Syd Arthur — "Dorothy" (from On an On, 2012)
39. Robert Wyatt — "Brian the Fox" (from Cuckooland, 2003)
40. Stereolab — "Ticker-Tape of the Unconscious" (from Dots and Loops, 1997)
41. Robert Wyatt — "Foreign Accents" (from Cuckooland, 2003)
42. Robert Wyatt — "Tom Hay's Fox" (from Cuckooland, 2003)
errata/clarification: Bill MacCormick didn't play on Eno's Taking Tiger Mountain album (I was thinking of Before and After Science). For some reason I gave the name of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra piece as just "Air". And I somehow overlooked the fact that Robert played guest piano and trumpet on Paul Weller's "Song For Alice"!
posted by Matthew Watkins at
09:35
1 Comments:
Thanks for another excellent episode. Robert Wyatt is a favorite I've followed since the Soft Machine tours with The Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1968. They provided quite able support owing to the mutual management of Chas Chandler, and one Mike Jeffries. I liked Matching Mole well enough. Apparently Wyatt was conflicted on the composition issue. He's a jazz fan well enough, but quite emotional and romantic, so he's drawn to songs and singing. Soft Machine was moving away from that mode.
Well, in the summer of '73 here in the Chicago area I was saddened to read in the pages of Melody Maker about Robert Wyatt's accident. It felt similar to hearing of Hendrix's death. I had vacation and had been meaning to visit England for years. I mentioned to friends that Wyatt might just appreciate a visitor. With that in mind I was inspired to go. Towards the end of my stay I phoned Melody Maker. They referred me to 'The Soft Machine Fan Club', an organization I never really followed up on for some reason, probably because it was the 70's, and I was enjoying myself a bit too much, if you know what I mean. So these folks phoned Wyatt and the hospital. I was told that he would enjoy a visitor, and I thought that a US fan made him curious. So I spent a nice hour visiting. I did most of the talking really, as he wasn't entirely comfortable and was distracted. I told him my tale and about the superb concert at Chicago's Auditorium Theater in August '68. I suspect the memory cheered him. I asked the usual fan questions, about the enigmatic Soft Machine II and 'End of an Ear', Syd Barrett, Bill Bruford joining King Crimson. I had read in the jazz magazine Down Beat Wyatt compared to the US drummer Sunny Murray. He was amused by that. He played me Henry Cow's 'Legend', which had just come out. He was in a ward with others and when he reached for his cassette player one of them asked for some James Brown which drew some laughter. Definitely a highlight of my life. I subsequently read that his friend Julie Christie and her then boyfriend Warren Beatty also visited Wyatt around this time.
I remember a Wyatt article in Wire magazine in which he told of his early musical influences. His parents had an extensive record collection. He wrote that he had an epiphany realizing that Ray Charles was as profound to him as any other music. He also ruminated about the difficulty of writing a simple 'pop' song. He certainly has a penchant for 40's and 50's jazz.
I've subsequently corresponed with Wyatt over the years. Once I sent him a home cassette, from an out of print vinyl, of a 50's 'jazz poetry' anthology named 'Jazz Canto'. I think Ezra Pond inspired that title. It was organized by saxophonists Jack Montrose and Gerry Mulligan, and singer-pianist Bob Dorough. Interesting recording, with a sequel I never purchased for some reason, 'Blues Canto'. But 'Jazz Canto' has some interesting participants, including Hoagy Carmichael and John Carradine. There are interesting works represented by Langston Hughes, Dylan Thomas and Walt Whitman. I was pleasantly surprised to see 'Jazz Canto' released on cd, and from an English company also.
Wyatt has sent me some brief thank you notes that I cherish. I'm friends with the writer Raymond Benson ( http://raymondbenson.blogspot.com/ ), who lives in the Chicago area. He knows Wyatt somewhat. I told him my tale. He was amused and showed me some curious letters that Wyatt has sent him over the years.
Thanks again.
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