Recent music #4

This month…

I am digging into the archives. I have a lot of music sitting on various hard drives waiting for a fresh set of ears. The stuff I’m sharing today comes from around 2017. If you like hearing older material, let me know and I’ll keep the archives open. More about this month’s selections below.

As always, thanks for listening.

Thanks, Mike

One of my favorite guitarists is the iconic and outlandish Sonny Sharrock. May 26 happens to be the anniversary of his passing so I thought this month was a good opportunity to share my various explorations of his catalog.

Sometime around 2015, I became lightly obsessed with Sonny Sharrrock’s music, specifically the album “Ask the Ages.” I was telling all my friends about this record and trying to stump them by playing the first track “Promises Kept” in impromptu blindfold tests. Listening to it so much, I transcribed the whole record and started bringing the music to different gigs. Most notably, I played an entire set of Sonny Sharrock music at Ars Nova Workshop’s October Revolution in 2017. I reveled in the fact that our contract said “set will begin immediately after the Art Ensemble of Chicago.” Very cool!

I have a whole set of originals and covers recorded with organ trio that has never seen the light of day. The power of “Ask the Ages” translates perfectly to the configuration of guitar, organ, and drums. On “Promises Kept,” you’ll hear a little sample of a session from the winter of 2017 with Chris Simonini and Matt Scarano.

“Many Mansions” and “Once Upon a Time” were recorded with my friends Robinson Morse and Kevin Ripley during the session that gave us my album “Speak Between.” I honestly love the way we play both tunes, especially “Once Upon a Time.”

“Little Rock” was recorded with Sandy Eldred and Kevin Ripley. We have a record available on all streaming platforms called MULTI MANSIONS, inspired by Sonny Sharrock. We called our band Many Mansions for a little bit but found there’s some corny electronic group with the same name.

I hope you enjoy this little trip through the archives. Please please please check out “Ask the Ages” if you haven’t already. One of my Desert Island discs!