Last night we had the great pleasure of seeing Gilberto Gil in concert. He had some health issues a little while ago but he's back and looking and sounding great for a mere lad of 77.
Gilberto is touring to promote his most recent album, "OK OK OK", which came out last year. Today's first selection comes from the album, and went down very well last night; the second dates from exactly fifty years earlier. And as for the clip from 1967 - Wow!
Watch out, Eddy Kenzo, there is a new kid in town coming to steal your crown. He still has some way to go, judging by the indifference of the general public in his video. But they will feel very foolish when Original Papyrus conquers us all.
P.S. Look out for some top quality sawing action about 90 seconds into the video.
I know there are a few Tex-Mex fans that pop in here occasionally. Hopefully they will enjoy this. Hopefully the rest of you will too.
Until recently I had never heard of Los Texmaniacs, even though they have been going for over twenty years. I imagine there might well have been occasions when they wish they hadn't saddled themselves with such a naff name. I feel that way about 27 Leggies sometimes, but it is too late for either of us to change.
Don't let the name put you off, though. They are a cracking combo, and clearly highly regarded in Texas. Their 2015 album "Americano Groove" - from which today's tracks come - features guests like Joe Ely, Augie Meyers, Alejandro Escovedo and David Hidalgo from Los Lobos. Also the less well known but equally cool Rick Trevino (see below).
Speaking of maniacs, as we were, it is a little known fact that Mr Acker Bilk - he of the waistcoats and smooth clarinet - was in Screaming Lord Sutch's band early in his career. Sutch always used to introduce him to audiences as Maniacker Bilk.
It was a nice day on Sunday so I treated myself to a trip to the seaside - Margate, to be precise. I popped into the always excellent Old Bank Bookshop for a browse while I was there and found that they had a "three CDs for £1" offer going. Obviously I took advantage, and as two of the three I picked out were double albums it worked out at 20p per CD.
The sole single CD was "Blå Himlen Blues", the 1985 album by Sweden's very own Imperiet. I had never heard of them but I was attracted by the colour scheme on the sleeve. Musically it is very much of its time, as you will spot immediately. I doubt I will dig it out very often, to be honest, but I don't begrudge them the 20p.
First up for you today is a song articulating the frustration one feels when the printer runs out of toner, followed by a song that is either inspired by the Swedish word for peace or by somebody called Fred - possibly Freddie Mercury if the occasional burst of Brian May guitar is a musical clue.
Let's have a bit of rock steady this sunny Saturday. Two tracks from The Cables, who possibly took their name from lead singer Keble Drummond (or possibly not). Both songs come from their 1970 album "What Kind of World", produced at Studio One by Sir Coxsone Dodd.
Because I'm in a good mood, and because "wire" is a bit like "cable", here's a bonus track - produced by Clive Chin just five years later and a couple of miles down the road from Studio One at Randy's Records. The sound quality is a bit ropey I'm afraid. That's my fault, not Clive's.
Last time we met we were having a frantic time up in Thessaloniki. Now we're packing our bags and heading down to Athens, where things are a little more mellow.
Sigmatropic are an Athenian outfit who have been going for about twenty years now. Their initial breakthrough came in 2002 when they released a Greek language album on which all the songs were based on poems by Nobel Laureate, Giorgis Seferis. This proved so successful that the following year they remade it all in English with a selection of guest singers.
The album is called "Sixteen Haiku & Other Stories" and the guests are an impressive bunch. They include Robert Wyatt, Alejandro Escovedo, Cat Power, John Grant, Laetitia Sadler, Howe Gelb, Mark Eitzel and the two we are featuring today - Steve Wynn and Lee Ranaldo. Steve's track in particular is rather excellent, and the whole album is worth tracking down if you can.
"The Jasmine" - Sigmatropic (featuring Steve Wynn)
"Haiku Twelve" - Sigmatropic (featuring Lee Ranaldo)
Mr Seferis was quite a man. As well as being one of the leading Greek poets of modern times he was a career diplomat - including a stint as Ambassador to the UK in the late 1950s - who then became one of the heroes of the resistance against the military junta that ruled Greece between 1967 and 1974. He died in September 1971, around about the time this was riding high in the local charts.
It's Sunday, so obviously we have some surf and garage revivalists from Greece for you. They are called The Frantic V and they hail from the fair city of Thessaloniki - birthplace of the Young Turks among many other claims to fame. These tracks are from their 2004 album, "A Long Play With The Frantic V".
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