Wyatt Lyrics

Check out the lyrics section over at the great Une Discographie De Robert Wyatt!

Signed Curtain (Robert Wyatt)

This is the first verse
This is the first verse, verse
This is the first, first...
And this is the chorus
Or perhaps it's the bridge
Or just another part
Of the song
That I'm singing

And this is the second verse
It could be the last verse
And this is the second verse
Second verse, second verse
It could be the last verse
Last verse
And it's probably
The last one
And this is the chorus
Or perhaps it's the bridge
Or just another key change
Never mind
It doesn't hurt
It only means
That I have lost faith in this song

'Cause it won't help me
Reach you...

Stone Floor Records

I might be a little late here, but I still want to point you towards the new independent Norwegian free jazz (and other improvised music) label Stone Floor Records.

They released three albums in 2012:

- All Included: Reincarnation of a free bird (SFR 001, 2012)
Martin Küchen: saxophones; Thomas Johansson: trumpet; Mats Äleklint: trombone; Jon Rune Strøm: double bass; Tollef Østvang: drums.
Read a review in AAJ.

- SAKA: Cementen (SFR 002, 2012)
Kristoffer Berre Alberts: tenor saxophone; Jon Rune Strøm: double bass; Dag Erik Knedal Andersen: drums.
Read a review in AAJ.

- Universal Indians: Nihil is now (SFR 003, 2012)
John Dikeman: saxophones; Jon Rune Strøm: double bass; Tollef Østvang: drums.
Read a review in AAJ.

So far I have been listening to All Included and SAKA, and they are highly recommended!

Coverdesign on both of "my records" (and probably the third one too): Lasse Marhaug.

The Core live in Bergen

Friday night I heard The Core again in Bergen, playing their up to date, Coltrane inspired jazz. They were super tight and full of energy, and had the audience both concentrating and shouting. You seldom see a member of the audience jump up to shake the pianist´s hand two seconds after his last note played. You should probably think twice before you do that to certain piano players, but The Core´s Erlend Slettevoll seemed OK about it! The rest of the members of  The Core are Jørgen Mathisen (sax), Kjetil Møster (sax), Steinar Raknes (bass) and Espen Aalberg (drums).

See them live if you can, but check out their albums too. For different lineups see The Core´s web site, and please note their bootleg section too, where they upload concert recordings.

Discography:
The Core: "Vision" (Jazzaway 2004)
The Core: "Blue Sky" (Jazzaway 2006)
The Core: "Office Essentials" (Jazzland 2007)
The Indian Core: "The Indian Core" (Grappa 2007)
Bergen Big Band Featuring The Core: "Meditations on Coltrane" (Grappa 2008)
The Core: "Golonka Love" (Moserobie 2008)
The Core & More Vol 1: "The Art of no return" (Moserobie 2009)
The Core: "Party" (Moserobie 2010)

Rock Furore

The Norwegian magazine "Rock Furore" issued 11 CD samplers in the period 1992-1994. Some of the collections were great, and you both got Norwegian artists (Motorpsycho, Biosphere, DePress, Finn Coren etc) and foreigners like Sugarcubes, PJ Harvey, Primal Scream, Nick Cave, Eugene Chadbourne, Rollins Band and Boo Radleys (to name a few).
I seem to remember that we had to write the magazine to get the wild covers, with photos by Per Heimly.
You may find the full CD discography (and some flexi-discs) and most of the covers at Discogs.

Mingering Mike

Record collecting may be like digging for gold. A lot of work and you never know what you'll find. Dori Hadar is a real digger, and in 2003 he found a lot of rare records by the soul star Mingering Mike, at a flea market in Washington DC. Well, they weren't real records, but products of the fantasy of a young kid, who made covers and records from cardboard and paper for 10 years, starting in the late 1960s.
Hadar (both a DJ and a criminal investigator!) and a friend managed to track down the real Mike too, and we get his story and a complete discography in the book "Mingering Mike. The Amazing Career of an Imaginary Soul Superstar" (Dri Hadar, Princeton Architectural Press, 2007). The book is just fantastic!
The preface is written by Neil Strauss, and you get the story in New York Times too. But I can't stop wondering. How real is the real Mike? Here he is at a book signing, fake hair all over the place!

And just to remind you, here are six imaginary editions of "Sea Song" by Robert Wyatt too (1,2,3,4,5,6).