Good evening, Kibitzers! The other day, in nomandates’ KTK, I was moved to post a couple of YouTubes, and then I realized I had way too much material in front of me for just comments.
I was responding to an alternate arrangement of Sweet Child o’ Mine, with a cover of the same song by Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox, with vocal by Miche Braden, who is an enormously gifted blues singer and an actor known for portraying both Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday. Pianist and arranger Scott Bradlee put together the Postmodern Jukebox collective because he wanted to bring jazz, blues, ragtime, and other classic styles to modern audiences. He’s been... let’s say successful. Nonetheless, he shares with Randy Rainbow the fact that he records most of his videos in his living room.
From the Postmodern Jukebox website:
[...]
Today, it’s been five years since Postmodern Jukebox performed its first show, and our family has grown to include nearly fifty singers and another fifty instrumentalists, all of whom now have the opportunity to perform the classic genres they love for the audiences who appreciate them. The vocalists sing every note live, without any tuning help. The musicians make every sound you hear on stage and in my living room with the instruments you see them playing. That doesn’t matter to everyone, but it matters to us and I believe it matters to our fans. We do it the old fashioned way and we love every second of it.
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Scott Bradlee shared this in the notes under the YouTube of Purple Rain:
Miche Braden was one of the very first singers I collaborated with — we worked on [the video game soundtrack] Bioshock:Infinite together, and hearing her sing the arrangements I made with such power and emotion inspired me to get deeper in arranging for vocalists, which eventually led to Postmodern Jukebox. She is a true master of singing, and I'm excited for you to hear her sing this blues rendition of Purple Rain by the late Prince.
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This Bon Jovi song is for our friend vzfk3s:
I brought in Miche Braden — the protege of Motown's legendary Funk Brothers, with quite possibly the most amazing voice I've ever heard — to transform One Direction's Story of My Life into a soulful, New Orleans style jazz piece. She did this on the very first take.
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This one is what I originally posted on Saturday — might be my favorite of hers:
Our friend Miche Braden returned to help us show what Guns N' Roses Sweet Child O' Mine would have sounded like if New Orleans blues legend Bessie Smith had recorded it back in the '20s. That note at 3:58 was so powerful that the room literally shook.
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You can find other work of Miche Braden with Postmodern Jukebox with this YouTube search. But before I stop typing, I’d like to let you hear another artist who’s worked with them.
Here’s my girl Maiya Sykes, Yale ‘00 and a contestant on Season 7 of The Voice. Her first project with PMJB was this cover of I Believe in a Thing Called Love by The Darkness. If you’re not familiar with the original (I was not, you’ll be shocked to learn), maybe go to that link and check it out, if nothing else to appreciate the job of musical salvage that has been done here (I’d call that link mildly NSFW). Bradlee writes at YouTube:
Folks, meet Maiya Sykes. I first heard her unbelievably powerful voice during our LA residency, and immediately asked her to join us on a video; you'll immediately see why. Here's her PMJ debut - a New Orleans jazz remake of The Darkness' cult classic, I Believe in a Thing Called Love.
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No more Clinton/Gore inauguration song here!
This is a little out of the mold, in that it’s not a modern pop song but a song of the Depression. But her interpretation is so powerful, I wanted you to hear it. (Paul Simon fans will recognize the source of the title of his You Can Call Me Al.)
One of the things I like about these arrangements and the singers’ presentation of them is that, if a song has lyrics in the voice of a male character, like this one or many of those we’ve already heard, no one gets the vapors trying to change the lyrics so “a woman can sing it”. That really annoys me. If a woman wants to sing it, she can fucking sing it. If it says she has a girlfriend, or that she once built a railroad, why should that not be so?
Ending up back in more modern times with my favorite from Maiya — this is the Green Day Boulevard of Broken Dreams, not the 1933 Al Dubin/Harry Warren song.
On our day off on tour we brought Maiya Sykes into the studio, where she delivered this powerful, emotionally raw performance of Green Day's Boulevard of Broken Dreams on the very first take. Folks, Maiya Sykes is the real deal, and everyone should know about this incredible vocalist.
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Here’s the YouTube search for Maiya Sykes with Postmodern Jukebox.
And here is PMJB’s YouTube channel. I have not even scratched the surface of what they have on offer — apparently, they’ve been making a new video or two every week for several years now. In some cases, there’s more than one video for a song as more than one song stylist takes it on, like All About That Bass 1 and All About That Bass 2, or Bad Romance 1 and Bad Romance 2. (In fact, there’s specifically a “Reboxed” series in which new artists re-cover songs PMJB has already done.)
Now I’m hungry, because to the mildly dyslexic, “PMJB” is constantly turning into “PBnJ” before my very eyes. Be that as it may, if you know PMJB, feel free to post your favorites in the thread!
Update: I’d be remiss not to pick up this item from Tuesday morning’s Cheers & Jeers:
Oh, and congrats to Kossack, C&J splasher, and Grammy-winning keyboardist extraordinaire John Hobbs, who gets inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame today as a member of the Nashville A-Team.
Among those being honored besides the Nashville A-Team: Felix Cavaliere of the Young Rascals; The Surfaris (Wipe Out); Don Everly; Alabama. Read more at Bill’s link. As others here have noted, jnhobbs (UID 103602) is a lovely person as well as an ace musician, and it’s nice to see him getting this well-deserved honor.
“The Players” = the “Nashville A-Team”:
Kitchen Table Kibitzing is a community series for those who wish to share a virtual kitchen table with other readers of Daily Kos who aren’t throwing pies at one another. Drop by to talk about music, your weather, your garden, or what you cooked for supper…. Newcomers may notice that many who post in this series already know one another to some degree, but we welcome guests at our kitchen table and hope to make some new friends as well.
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⛈️ 🌊 DORIAN 🌊 ⛈️
Denise Oliver Velez posts what news there is on the Bahamas in the APR thread. This Black Kos thread has coverage of the scale of the damage. For those who feel moved to help:
⛈️ Operation Helping Hands: 100% of funds raised through this United Way effort will help people affected by Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas and other affected areas. Donate online here, or send a check payable to Operation Helping Hands, c/o United Way of Miami-Dade, P.O. Box #459007, Miami, Florida 33245-9007.
⛈️ World Central Kitchen: Chef José Andrés is already on the job cooking hot meals in Freeport and Abaco. Donate here to World Central Kitchen, or text FOOD to 80100 to donate $10. Follow Chef on Twitter for further info.
⛈️ All Hands and Hearts: Donations allow them to send volunteers to help with the work of removing debris and building temporary shelters. (They are also recruiting volunteers.)
⛈️ Good360: This organization determines specific supplies that are needed, solicits donation of these, and transports them. You can donate cash, but see their Dorian page if you want to donate goods.
⛈️ International Medical Corps: They deliver both medical care and related supplies; donate here.
⛈️ Heart to Heart International: Another organization delivering medical care and supplies. Donate here, and scroll down to see more on what they’ve been doing.
⛈️ Portlight Strategies: This organization provides pre- and post-disaster support for people with disabilities, who are often not considered in more general plans. They’re preparing to go to the Bahamas, and are also helping people in US states who need help to evacuate or shelter. Donate here. Learn more here; they also seek donations of “health and disability items”.
⛈️ ShelterBox: Donate here to help them as they prepare to respond.
⛈️ The Smile Trust: This Florida organization’s mission to help homeless people prepares them to help in the Bahamas. Donate here.
⛈️ Archdiocese of Miami: Dorian Relief Fund through Catholic Charities.
⛈️ Greater Miami Jewish Federation: Dorian Relief Fund.
⛈️ Additionally, the Bahamas website is maintaining a resource-center page listing “trusted partners” that are accepting donations of both money and goods; also included is info on how to volunteer as an EMT or volunteer your plane to make relief flights.
⛈️ Here is Charity Navigator’s page rating organizations providing Dorian aid. The Better Business Bureau’s give.org also rates charities. The BBB suggests caution in giving to newly-created groups that lack experience/clarity of purpose.
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Yet a third hurricane season started June 1, and Puerto Rico is still struggling to recover.
It is Day 762 since Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico.
» » ENHANCED MEDICAID FUNDING FOR PUERTO RICO, USVI, AND OTHER US TERRITORIES ENDS NOVEMBER 21! UNLESS CONGRESS ACTS QUICKLY TO PASS THE BILLS H.R.1354 & S.1773, ALMOST 1.5 MILLION US CITIZENS WILL LOSE THEIR HEALTHCARE. PLEASE CALL YOUR CONGRESSPERSON AND SENATORS. DETAILS HERE. « «
PLEASE FOLLOW Denise Oliver Velez and the SOS Puerto Rico group for the latest news about developments in Puerto Rico and the USVI. Denise generally collects resonant tweets at the top of her comment threads as well, and in the APR’s thread most mornings, to make it easy to retweet. If you tweet or FB, please share something about Puerto Rico and USVI regularly.
PUERTO RICO and USVI DISASTER RELIEF DONATION LINKS
(🌅 = most recently recommended by Denise)
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