Random wrongness...

... New Orleans style.

A free Ramsey Lewis download

Pianist Ramsey Lewis, who’s been making records since the 1950s, has a new jazz album out... “Songs from the Heart: Ramsey Plays Ramsey.”

If you’re registered at AllAboutJazz.com, you can cop a FREE MP3.

Click here to hear “Touching, Feeling, Knowing” on my Vox blog. To download the track, follow this link to AllAboutJazz.

Trivia time: When Eldee Young and Red Holt left the Ramsey Lewis Trio in 1966 (eventually to become the Young-Holt Unlimited), who was Ramsey Lewis’s new drummer? Hint: He later became very famous.

The answer is in the comments section.

Saturday morning cartoon

Random genius

Seriously... how brilliant is Erika Brooks Adickman?

(By the way, I blogged eight months ago about the legend of Stagger Lee and its musical byproducts. Case you missed it.)

A free Apache flute download

President Obama today addressed more than 500 Indian chiefs in Washington, D.C. This reminds me to point out that November is American Indian Heritage Month.

Not to pat myself on the back... but last year, on this blog, I rocked the balls off of American Indian Heritage Month. Some of you might remember.

If not, you can still read about rock ’n’ roll Indians... or the Mohawk ironworkers... or the famous orator Chief Red Jacket... or Afro-Navajo recording artist Radmilla Cody... or the fascinating history of Canada’s oldest Christmas carol.

I won’t be kicking it like that this year. As a blogger, I’m a shell of my former self. Because now I got a real job.

Anyhoo... for American Indian Heritage Month 2009, the least I can do is point to a FREE MP3. Hope y’all dig Apache flute music.

Click here to hear “Flying Free” on my Vox blog. The artist is Andrew Vasquez. To download the track, click the title below.

“Flying Free” (MP3)
Album available at iTunes Music Store
Album available at eMusic
Album available at Amazon MP3

Random wrongness

Even I am sickened by this.

A free Wadada Leo Smith download

If you like the electric Miles, you’ll dig this FREE MP3... something funky from free-jazz trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith.

His latest album is a live double- CD titled “Spiritual Dimensions”... recorded with two different bands.

Click here to hear a 5-minute edit of “South Central L.A. Kulture.” To download this edit, follow this link to AllAboutJazz.com. (You must be registered at the website to get the music.)

The album version of this track is 12½-minutes long. And one of Smith’s sidemen is badass guitarist Nels Cline.

Worst Broadcaster in the World

Last night, on television, Keith Olbermann casually referred to a sitting U.S. congressman as a “son of a bitch.” Within five minutes, Mr. Olbermann also told Glenn Beck and his followers to “go to hell.”

As with his occasional utterances of “goddamn” on the air, one can argue, I suppose, that this is entertaining.

Inarguably, it is crass. It is weak writing. (Each profanity was carefully scripted.) Such vulgarity is unpersuasive as political speech and, of course, unprofessional for a major-league journalist.

(Yes, Mr. Olbermann does consider himself a journalist... in the Edward R. Murrow tradition, no less.)

Hey Keith... you child... what’s next? Gonna talk about Rush Limbaugh’s mama? Call Glenn Beck a faggot?

I bet you dollar money Sean Hannity has never – not once, not ever – referred to anybody as a “son of a bitch” on his air. And Hannity’s the King of All Douchebags!

But he is a better broadcaster than you, Keith.

You think it’s hip to make the cable news experience more like reading lunatic blogs or watching “Family Guy”? Or maybe, being wrapped like a Hollywood mummy in liberal sanctimony, you think you’re speaking truth to power. Or impressing us with your passion.

Get over yourself, Keith. The words that tumble from your mouth are making the world just a little bit worse. Because you are contributing directly to the degradation of our political culture.

UPDATE (11/04/09): And looky here. The Huffington Post is encouraging him! It’s a daggone shame, people...

Something semi-animated from Basement Jaxx

Featuring Lightspeed Champion.

Tuesday 12-inch Flashback: ‘Standing On the Top’

I always felt a little sad for the Temptations when this record was out.

Yeah, I know it was a hit. But after everything the Tempts achieved in show business, only to have Rick James barking “Temptations, sing!” at ’em... that shit wasn’t right.

Nice bridge, though. Real nice bridge.

Who dat? Who dat?

Who dat sayin’ they gonna beat dem Saints?

Sometimes I miss journalism.

My last newspaper job was at the Washington Post. I wrote for the Style section from 1990 through 1993. I had a ball there.

The hands-down best writer on Style was Henry Allen. Every piece he wrote was an event. In 2000, he won a Pulitzer Prize.

One day, during my first year at the paper, Henry Allen said to me: “You got chops.” The rest of that day I was walking on air, boy. Never will forget it. “Henry Allen said I’ve got chops!”

Now comes this extraordinary gossip item from Harry Jaffe at Washingtonian magazine:

“Details are sketchy, but numerous witnesses report that veteran feature editor Henry Allen punched out feature writer Manuel Roig-Franzia on Friday. ...

“It should be noted that Allen is nearly seventy, but he served in the Marines in Vietnam.”

According to Harry Jaffe, the incident began when another Style editor assigned Roig-Franzia and Monica Hesse a story about political secrets inadvertently revealed. The reporters turned in their piece. “Allen took a look and didn’t like,” writes Jaffe. “He started ranting about the number of mistakes he had found. ...

“Allen, according to sources, said: ‘This is total crap. It’s the second worst story I have seen in Style in 43 years.’

“Roig-Franzia then wandered into the newsroom. A veteran foreign correspondent, he has been turning out political features for Style. He heard Allen’s rant and stopped by his desk.”

Supposedly, Manuel Roig- Franzia told him, “Oh, Henry, don’t be such a cocksucker.”

Then... “Allen lunged at Roig-Franzia, threw him to the newsroom floor, and started throwing punches. Roig-Franzia tried to fend him off. [Executive Editor Marcus] Brauchli and others pulled the two apart.”

Wow.

Damn-near everybody I knew at the Washington Post is now gone. They took buyouts as the Post went about shrinking its staff. I chatted with a Style reporter just last week who said there’s a weird vibe in the air.

I had no idea how weird. (I also had no idea that Henry Allen could draw. That sketch above is a self-portrait.)

UPDATE (11/02/09): Meanwhile, blogger Matt Dornic of FishbowlDC posted this afternoon: “[W]e regret to inform you that our sources have disclaimed [Harry Jaffe’s] account saying, ‘Jaffe’s story is full of hyperbole -- it was a single punch and no one was on the ground.’ ”

More to come, no doubt.

UPDATE (11/02/09): Erik Wemple of the Washington City Paper reports that Henry Allen has been banned from the Washington Post newsroom. According to Wemple:

“That sanction is not as harsh as it sounds: Allen’s last day was to be Nov. 20. He is 68, had already accepted a buyout, ... and had already announced his retirement.

“Of his swing, Allen says, ‘The last time I threw a punch at anybody was in the spring of 1963 in Parris Island, S.C., in Marine Corps recruit training.’ ... Roig-Franzia hung up when called on this matter.”

Random whiteness

A free Janelle Monáe download

Today’s FREE MP3 is a quirky new cut from Janelle Monáe, the girl from another planet.

Click here to hear “Come Alive (The War of the Roses)” on my Vox blog. To download it, follow this link to Giant Step, the marketing website.