WFMU RADIO: Give The Drummer Some 08/22/14

Listener comments!

A significant portion of today's program will be the presentation of an hour-long duet between Adbul Wadud and the poet Michael S. Harper. Recorded live at the University of Illinois in 1971, it is a harrowing journey of grief and joy not to be missed.

8:54am Gary:

Looking forward to it!

8:54am Doug Schulkind:

Hello Brother G!

🥁

8:55am duke:

I'm looking forward to that. I may have to catch it on the archives. I was just listening to Wadud and Julius Hemphil earlier this week.

8:56am Doug Schulkind:

At least three (count 'em) Wadud/Hemphill performances coming up!

9:00am ndbob:

morning Doug and everyone!

🥁

9:01am Brian in UK:

Are we there yet?
I want the toilet.
My Teddy Bear wont wake up.
Who's nicked my pyjamas?

9:01am listener james from westwood:

Listening remotely as far as local Wi-Fi permits!

9:02am Doug Schulkind:

Howdy ndbob, Brian in UK and Listener James from WiFiland!

9:02am ausmanx:

we are definitely there, Brian. there's no escape

9:03am Doug Schulkind:

Hoho, it's ausmanx!

9:05am ausmanx:

content.lackawannadigitalarchives.org...

🥁

9:06am Brian in UK:

Thanks ausmanx. What's on the subtitles today?

9:07am thedunkel:

Good Morning Mr. Drummer and fellow WOOFMOO groupies!

🥁

9:07am Brian in UK:

Doug, our ability to relate history is as awful as it ever was.

9:10am jeff g:

So good, this number.

9:11am Doug Schulkind:

Hey there thedunkel!

@ausmanx
I saw that! There is some confusion over the date of the Harper/Wadud duet I am going to play. I have seen one reference that dates it to 1984, but in the introduction to the piece (which I edited out), the host announces that Harper's book, published by the University of Illinois in 1971, had just been published.

Hiya jeff g!

9:13am kat330:

Hello, Doug and alls you! The planets have aligned so that I might join the board this good Friday, and good fortune indeed. Cello is probably my favorite single instrument.

🥁

9:14am Brian in UK:

Hey kat, 'specially when played by Pablo Casals.

9:14am ausmanx:

superb egyptian film about sexual harassment, brian. pretty amazing - cairo 678. incidentally doug, have passed on your African premium CD this year to Clinton Walker who's the great documenter of indigenous C & W performance here (his book BURIED COUNTRY) cos it just reminded me so much of their stuff

9:14am Doug Schulkind:

So lovely to see (read) you, kat330. Here's to the planets!

9:15am Doug Schulkind:

@ausmanx
I have the 2-CD accompaniment to Buried Country. Love love love that collection.

9:15am kat330:

@Brian: Indeed!
@Doug: Venus and Jupiter, to the moon, alles!

9:17am Doug Schulkind:

One of the reasons I generally avoid doing "tribute" and other single-themed shows is that I feel so bloody awful about the incredible music that I can't fit in. And that is the case with today's program. The cutting-room floor here is neck deep with amazing sounds. Sigh.

9:18am Mr C:

Here to represent for the righteous in Beverly Hills

9:18am ndbob:

Heya Kat!

9:18am Doug Schulkind:

Give my love to Beverly, Mr C!

9:18am kat330:

Planetary alignment: apod.nasa.gov...

9:21am kat330:

Bob! Watching the news about your former home, orange you glad you moved to Bloomington? Yes, it's become the helldog days these past few and heading into the next few, but otherwise we've lucked out with a most sterling summer in southern Indiana.

9:22am jeff g:

Traditionally, here's where I'd put in that I took a small class w Prof Michael S Harper in college and was terrified most of the time. The rest if the time I was just really nervous. So...there we go.

9:23am Doug Schulkind:

The recording engineer on this track The Hard Blues was the amazing soul sax player and producer Oliver Sain. He produced those amazing early sessions with Fontella Bass. (A trumpeter on the date, Lester Bowie, would later marry Ms. Bass.)

9:23am Uncle Michael:

Good morning, everyperson.

9:24am ndbob:

@kat For sure - the summer has been so mild - a number of humid days, but few hot and humid days - everything good except the pollen count:)

9:25am Doug Schulkind:

The poetry Mr. Harper will begin reading presently will be, at times, fairly terrifying. Dead children, suicide by rat poison, cancer. If your gut has ears, you might want to warn it. But there will be great joy and delight, too.

G'morning, Uncle Michael!

9:27am ndbob:

and Fontella recorded an Oliver Sain song - "Soul of the Man" - flip of "Rescue Me"

9:27am kat330:

Appreciate the warning, Doug. My ability of image-conjuring in the mind's eye means I'll likely need to add some sort of filter first.

9:29am Doug Schulkind:

Yes yes yes, ndbob!

@kat330
When the words get too heavy, focus on the cello.

9:29am Gary:

Jayne Cortez!

9:29am ndbob:

@Doug I don't think I can deal with that right now - when it starts I will bow out for the hour, then come back - can always hear it on the archive if I want to.

🥁

9:30am listener james from westwood:

Hoo boy, that's the fastest I've had a day go south on me in a long while. Even a poem about dead children and rat poison will be a step up. If not for WFMU I'd be returning to bed by this point. (No pressure, Doug and UM!)

9:30am ndbob:

wow sorry James

9:31am Doug Schulkind:

@ndbob
I have broken up the poetry duet into two parts. The first one is the heavier set and lasts about 38 minutes. It will begin in about 12 minutes or so. The second section is about 25 minutes and and can't exactly say when I will be playing it. Probably around 11am (ET) or so.

9:32am jeff g:

Have found the production on Hard Blues kinda weird actually. There's some odd-sounding panning? or knob-turning of some kind? on the unison horn parts. Typically chalked it up to a bad transfer to CD.

9:33am ndbob:

ah OK - I will be back after part one then

9:33am Doug Schulkind:

Cello cello cello cello cello. Cello. Such gorgeous cello.

@Jeff G
I have heard that weird panning thing happen on every version of Hard Blues I've heard.

🥁

9:36am Brian in UK:

Doug, I have been reading Lee Miller. Her photographs of Dachau camp are chilling. What is more so is the fact that local residents deny all knowledge of what went on in the camp.

9:36am kat330:

Love the piano - cello interplay.

9:37am Doug Schulkind:

@Brian in UK
Kind of like talking to some of the white residents of Ferguson, Missouri, I'm afraid.

9:39am Doug Schulkind:

@kat330
The pianist on this is Anthony Davis.

9:41am kat330:

Mm, just poured my 2nd glass of iced coffee w/lemon peel twist.

9:42am ndbob:

I really don't think making any kind of an analogy between residents of Dachau and Ferguson is called for

🥁

9:46am listener james from westwood:

If you read some of the comments my "fellow" Americans made on a donations website when contributing money to the murderous cop, the more apt comparison might be to Birmingham or Selma or another civil rights era flashpoint. Thoroughly sickening.

9:47am ndbob:

@james - a more appropriate comment - but I don't think that's reflective of more then a small group of bigots and haters

9:49am ndbob:

anyway back in 38 min

9:50am Doug Schulkind:

Maybe you're right, ndbob, though I do believe the distance between the points on the continuum of inhumanity is shorter than we might like to believe.

9:51am kat330:

I've witnessed, even been a victim, of how PD's locally and around this country feel they can do just about anything with impunity. And it's most usually a safe gamble for them to do so, too. If there is any reason to laud technology, it's the advent of phone cameras and videotaping ease we now have.

🥁

9:53am listener james from westwood:

kat330, have you read Matt Taibbi's latest book? It shows how rigged the system against people seeking justice. Basically the path of least resistance becomes accepting a fine, parole, constant police or state intrusion (e,g. when seeking welfare benefits) and the abridgment of const. rights vs. getting a lawyer to even fight the case. Sick. I read that and Packer's "The Unwinding" in the same week and was sorely motivated to have a bonfire for my passport while standing on a non-US shore.

9:57am kat330:

@James: Haven't read the book, but I have read his articles -- NYer + ? Rolling Stone? maybe even Vanity Fair? -- and it warms the cockles of my heart to know that investigative journalism is alive and well in Taibbi.

🥁

9:57am βrian:

Lead-belly skies over the isthmus today. It's like swimming in overcooked pasta. Yeesh.

9:58am Doug Schulkind:

@βrian
I wish you nothing but an al dente sky!

9:59am Doug Schulkind:

The poetry of the cello. The poetry of the cello. The poetry of the cello.

🥁

10:00am βrian:

May it rain puttanesca sauce!

🥁

10:00am Brian in UK:

In the right hands the cello is a thing of wonder.
In the wrong hands.........

🥁

10:01am βrian:

... a thing of blunder?

🥁

10:02am Brian in UK:

@βrian that's a whoreable comment.

🥁

10:05am βrian:

Aye, the spice of life.

10:08am kat330:

I wonder how they worked out the musical cues and how much rehearsal vs. in-the-moment improv.

🥁

10:10am βrian:

"... thousands of Central American countries seeking refuse in the United States." -TPM

10:11am kat330:

@βrian: Well, there's certainly no shortage, plenty to go around, in our consumer society.

10:12am Doug Schulkind:

A thing of wonder, indeed, kat330.

10:13am alanr:

amazing relevant show!

10:14am Doug Schulkind:

Good greetings, alanr! Will become even more relevant in just a bit...

🥁

10:17am listener james from westwood:

His artist on that book, Molly Crabapple, is also a skilled writer and observer, and has been writing some teeth-on-the-bone investigative pieces. Check her recent piece on near-slave labor in Dubai.

🥁

10:17am listener james from westwood:

WFMU + dicing aromatics in the kitchen = calmer mood.

10:18am ausmanx:

it's getting worse in freedom-loving Australia too, i'm afraid folks. was hurried along a public street just last night by police horses for having the temerity to protest the Israeli Film Festival. would you like to take our Prime Minister?

10:19am Doug Schulkind:

Dicing Aromatics shall be the name of my first book of poetry.

@ausmanx
Rather have a funnel-web spider, thanks!

🥁

10:21am Brian in UK:

More lasting than bronze?

Never figured how Israel becomes part of Europe at times.

10:22am kat330:

@James: Thanks for the recs. Most recent book I read was recommended by a fellow SoundCloud artist: "War of Art" by Steven Pressfield. Familiar with it?

10:28am ndbob:

and back

10:29am kat330:

@ausmanx: I nipped my digits in the bud earlier thinking to write LJFW about passport burning and wondering, but is there a place for us where it's so much better? [breaking into a West Side Story duet]

10:30am ndbob:

@james I've read many things by Packer, and reviews of "The Unwinding" - I have the feeling that if I read it though I'd never get out of bed again

🥁

10:31am Brian in UK:

Got to walk the dog in the woods, think I need some outside air.

10:31am Doug Schulkind:

Welcome back, ndbob. Just a word of caution, some of the disturbing images I referred to earlier will be present in the second part of the duet with Michael Harper. I had thought they fell mostly in part 1, but I now realize that part 2 contains some, too.

10:33am ausmanx:

kat, it's certainly hard to know! there is a communist town in Spain which sounds pretty cool! anyway, my work is done so i'm off home towards 1 a.m. and this time next week i'll be in London town so i suspect i may not be with you on the comments board for a coupla weeks, doug. see you in late sept! thanks for the Wadud...

10:33am Doug Schulkind:

Safe travels, ausmanx!

10:33am kat330:

Sweet dreams and bon voyage, ausmanx!

🥁

10:34am listener james from westwood:

@kat: Yes indeed. Has provided many well-needed pushes to ship things I've gotten to 95% with and needed to get over the finish line.

🥁

10:34am listener james from westwood:

ndbob, your feeling is not inaccurate.

10:34am kat330:

A very slim book that pretty much can be distilled down to Nike's "Just DO it" coupled with the I Ching's "perseverance furthers." :)

10:35am ndbob:

@Doug - thanks - I will listen and if its too much I will stop

10:37am ndbob:

@james - that's why I stick to Packer's short pieces

10:39am Doug Schulkind:

@kat330
I would not be surprised to learn that Nike's Phil Knight has purchased the rights to the I Ching.

🥁

10:39am listener james from westwood:

@Doug: If Apple gets there first, they'll release it as iChing.

10:40am Doug Schulkind:

@Listener James
The truth hurts.

10:41am kat330:

@James: Had just started reading it when the news of Robin Williams arrived, which made me balk about his platitudes a bit. And also the conundrum of writing a self-help book while stating he considers seeking help as yet another manifestation of Resistance.

10:42am kat330:

For both Nike and Apple, it's obviously transformed into the Ka Ching.

10:42am Doug Schulkind:

By the way, if you would like to hear the entire duet between Michael Harper and Abdul Wadud without interruptions (and with a brief introductory statement by a woman, presumably from the University of Illinois), go here: www.popuparchive.org...

10:43am Mr C:

Taking it easy today?

10:43am Doug Schulkind:

Some longer tracks, to be sure. This show is wider, but deeper.

10:44am Doug Schulkind:

@kat330
We have a winner!

10:44am Mr C:

So wide I can't get around
So deep I can't get under

🥁

10:45am listener james from westwood:

@kat330: Perfect!

🥁

10:46am listener james from westwood:

That is a paradox, to be sure. One could always take Bruce Lee's approach w/ the book: "Absorb what is useful."

10:46am Sir Nose D'Voidoffunk:

You call for me, Mr. C?

10:46am kat330:

Hey, the planets are aligned, the Muses are at work, Resistance is futile.

10:50am kat330:

Someone should write a book "War ON Art," as the evolution of public education for US bears out. And the NFL demanding artists PAY to perform at the Stupor Bowl?! I'm all for giving art away (anti-Pressfield's message), but paying for the privilege to do so, I don't think so. That's why I'm reverting my SC "Pro" account back to a free one, minus bells & whistles in coming weeks.

10:50am Doug Schulkind:

I mean, have you ever heard a cello being played this way before?

🥁

10:51am listener james from westwood:

The Borg were on that tip way before Pressfield. (Or way after? A long time ago?)

🥁

10:51am listener james from westwood:

I am always happy to hear new ways in which people can charm sound from a cello.

10:53am Doug Schulkind:

Warning: When you try to Google "Flat-Out Jump Suite," the search engine will change it to "Flat-Out Jumpsuit."

10:54am kat330:

Ha! That creates an image.

🥁

10:56am listener james from westwood:

Q. What would Flat Stanley wear if he were a superhero?

11:01am Parq:

Attempted A: A Flatcape?

Anybody else find themselves weekly expecting the start of "Oligna" to turn into "Peaches N Regalia"?

🥁

11:01am listener james from westwood:

Thanks, btw, Doug, for making what must have been the tough choice of which cuts to include to feature Wadud today. I know there's often an amazing trove to have to review when one has a thematic/artist-focused program to, well, program!

11:03am boxwalla:

thanks for this great program! i didn't know about his middle name. do you know how he spelled it? kabir? kabeer?

11:04am Doug Schulkind:

Great to see you, boxwalla! I believe "Kabir" to be the correct spelling.

11:05am boxwalla:

ok. just saw it = kabir

11:06am Doug Schulkind:

@Listener James
Tell me about it! So so many great performances that aren't making it into this show. (Now you can see why I chose to do five 3-hour Yusef specials. I just couldn't face making any significant cuts.)

11:12am Doug Schulkind:

Kabir = "The Great" in Arabic

11:14am boxwalla:

ooh, the poetry is so great! a revelation!

11:15am boxwalla:

Kabir = our son's name!

11:15am Parq:

What Boxwalla said -- this is really something!

11:16am kat330:

Oooh, this is great cello!

11:18am boxwalla:

this was the inspiration for our son's name http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabir

11:19am Doug Schulkind:

Wow, boxwalla.

11:20am Gary:

No men (or women) are natural born anything!

11:20am Carmichael:

Wow, I waded into some heavy ass shit here on this board. So much for my Fun Flippant Friday®.

11:21am Doug Schulkind:

Welcome to the longest, hardest penis in the Mississippi urinal, Carmichael!

11:22am kat330:

@Gary: Many LGBTs might take issue with that.

11:22am Doug Schulkind:

Oliver Jackson was, along with Abdul Wadud, a member of BAG, Black Artists Group, the St. Louis artist-controlled organization similar to Chicago's AACM.

11:23am Carmichael:

Old punchline: "I told the genie I wanted a 12" penis, and he was hard of hearing."

11:24am Doug Schulkind:

Until hearing this poetry for the first time last night, I never knew about Jackson's wife's suicide.

11:25am kat330:

"A bitch named ISIS" has additional meaning today.

11:25am Doug Schulkind:

GIVE THE DRUMMER RADIO PROGRAMMING ALERT...
Uncle Michael's radio show, Hinky Dinky Time, is up next here on the Drummer Stream. it begins at the top of the hour. Playlist page here: wfmu.org...

11:26am Doug Schulkind:

@kat330
Oof.

11:32am ndbob:

oops - lost connection there for a minute

11:33am Doug Schulkind:

My connection looks/looked steady. Anybody else lose me?!?

11:34am ndbob:

strictly from my end - general connectivity issue

11:35am kat330:

I was losing the stream in regular pulses a few mins. before your program started, but I rebooted my digital radio, and it's been fine since.

11:35am Gary:

Mine's been fine.

11:36am kat330:

@ndbob: ATT or TW or ?

11:36am Doug Schulkind:

I had connectivity problems a couple weeks ago. Never a minute passes when I'm not nervous about it. Especially during a "special" program like this one.

11:36am boxwalla:

there's a great book on BAG: Point from which creation begins

11:37am ndbob:

@kat actually here we have Airwave - which provides internet to residential complexes

🥁

11:38am listener james from westwood:

Solid on this side!

11:39am Doug Schulkind:

Have been wanting to read that for years, boxwalla. I've scanned some of it via Google Books (books.google.com...) but I get a headache doing that.

11:39am kat330:

Like in Scottsburg, where the mayor progressively brought broadband to everyone?

11:41am ndbob:

Service is really slow - though the did recently increase the bandwith

11:43am Doug Schulkind:

The guitarist on this track is Dominique Gaumont, who died five years after this recording at age, gulp. 30.

en.wikipedia.org...

11:45am Doug Schulkind:

Next up a track from maybe the most glorious Abdul Wadud gem of them all: His solo cello record "By Myself."

11:45am boxwalla:

Gaumont played on some great 70s Miles recordings too!

11:45am Uncle Michael:

I hope you'll all join me in the next room. The line forms through the gift shop. wfmu.org...

11:46am Doug Schulkind:

@boxwalla
Did not know that until reading it just now at Wikipedia.

11:46am kat330:

@ndbob: Do you know if you can receive 1220 AM radio from Salem, IN? Not sure if it reaches you and, though you wouldn't want to listen other than to confirm signal, that's WSLM, the radio station my dad started in 1953 and operated until his death in 2010.

11:48am Parq:

Uncle M, took a sneak peek at your playlist. Is that image from the famous (or infamous, if you prefer) Apple "1984" commercial?

11:49am kat330:

Simply cello-mazing. Thanks for this morning's program, Doug!

11:50am ndbob:

I'm not sure Kat - I will check next time in the car - chances are pretty good I think

11:50am Uncle Michael:

Parq, I honestly do not know...it's possible but I don't suspect so.

🥁

11:51am Brian in UK:

Doug, back to your comment about hearing the cello played. Ever heard Peter Maxwell Davies' Eight Songs for a Mad King. That's a snappy little number. Brice country.

11:51am kat330:

It was farm news, Rock'n'roll, country and sermonizing dawn to dusk under my father's ownership, but now my youngest half-sister and her husband have made a very big mess of it. :,

11:51am Uncle Michael:

It is!

11:52am ndbob:

@kat looking at the website now

11:52am Gary:

This is absurdly great

11:52am Doug Schulkind:

Hey up there, Parq! Almost missed you!

@Brian in UK
Have NOT heard that. YET.

11:53am Doug Schulkind:

@Uncle Michael
Gonna run a minute or two over. My apologies. (I said the same thing to Jesse K on Tuesday. Whoops!)

11:54am Uncle Michael:

Why, I oughta...

11:54am kat330:

Latin flavor here.

11:56am Doug Schulkind:

This track is reminiscent of Marion Brown's (Latin-tinged) La Placita. (Making mental note to try that segue in a few years.)

11:57am ndbob:

excellent show Doug!

11:57am Parq:

Hey back atcha, Doug. You wouldn't have been missing much.

11:57am kat330:

Habanero, I think.

🥁

11:57am Brian in UK:

Delicious, Doug.

11:58am Gary:

Really great show, Doug; thank you for introducing me to yet ANOTHER great musician I hadn't known of before

11:59am Doug Schulkind:

Not hardly, Parq!

@Gary
A little angel somewhere just got his/her/its wings!

11:59am Uncle Michael:

Thanks for giving my ears wonderful things to chew on this morning, Doug.

11:59am kat330:

Have a great weekend everyone! Until the planets align again, adios!

🥁

11:59am listener james from westwood:

Lovely and loving tribute today, Doug. Thanks muchly!

11:59am Doug Schulkind:

Keep your fingers away from Uncle Michael's ears, everyone.

12:00pm Doug Schulkind:

I love you all madly. Thanks for hanging with me!

12:01pm Uncle Michael:

see you all over there

12:37pm Jeff Golick:

One for the ages, Doug. ::bows deeply::

Theme Music: Sarah Webster Fabio	Jujus: Alchemy of the Blues	Jujus: Alchemy of the Blues (Folkways 1976)
ECD	In Tempo	Major Force: The Original Art-Form (Mo' Wax 1990)

Julius Hemphill	The Hard Blues	Coon Bid'ness (Arista 1972)
Jayne Cortez & the Firespitters	Commitment	Maintain Control (Bola Press 1986)
Barry Altschul	Chael	Another Time/Another Place (Muse 1978)

Arthur Blythe	Duet for Two	Metamorphosis (India Navigation 1977)
Julius Hemphill Quartet	Body	Flat-Out Jump Suite (Black Saint 1980)
Black Unity Trio	Al-Nisa	Al-Fatihah (Salaam ca. 1970)

Human Arts Ensemble	Streets of St. Louis	Streets of St. Louis (Moers 1978)
Abdul Wadud	Kaleidoscope	By Myself (Bisharra 1977)
Abdul Wadud & Julius Hemphill	Dream	Oakland Duets (Music & Arts 1992)

	Gaze lovingly at my other playlists	Take a gander at the WFMU Homepage
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	August 22, 2014 In search of Abdul Khabir Wadud
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