It’s February which means that throughout this month Revolution Rock will devote each episode that airs in February to theme based programming. Dave and co-host Adam have special programming lined up ranging from jazz, punk, post-punk, garage, country, folk and surf. This year’s themed month programming starts off on February 3rd with a program focusing on jazz musician Miles Davis. Revolution Rock airs every Saturday from 7-9 PM on CJAM 99.1 FM in Windsor/Detroit. It can be streamed via cjam.ca and be downloaded via the very same website afterwards.
Revolution Jazz. The Music of Miles Davis
Saturday February 3rd
7-9 PM
CJAM 99.1 FM (www.cjam.ca)
Miles Davis was a pioneer, not only of jazz music, but also of 20th century music in general. The man has played a crucial role in almost every major development in jazz since the 1940’s. He treated the genre not as a set of parameters to follow, but a fluid forum to explore an infinity of possibilities. To appraise the legacy of Miles Davis, it would be too restrictive to simply focus on one album or even a single era of his career. His exercises in “cool jazz” (see
Birth of the Cool) from the 1950’s marked a major shift in post-bebop jazz, introducing a range of classical music techniques into both Davis’ sound and the genre itself.
‘Round About Midnight defined the hard bop subgenre, along with the works of fellow legends like Coltrane and Rollins.
Kind of Blue not only changed the landscape of jazz again through its use of modality (using musical modes as opposed to standard chord progressions), but the record also remains the best selling jazz album of all time.
His late 1960’s collaborations with producer Teo Macero (
In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew, and
A Tribute to Jack Johnson) not only invented jazz fusion, but also caused an uproar amongst fans equal to the controversy of Dylan’s “electric era”. Then there are his later era experiments in augmenting jazz and electronic music, resulting in groundbreaking and boundary defying records like
On the Corner and
Doo-Bop. To say the least, it’s hard to pin Davis down as simply a musician of one movement or style. His music was always in flux, never static, never the same. Like the compositions he poured so much energy into, he refused to travel the safe road or follow the path expected of him. Davis was a musical subversive, never resting on his laurels and never satisfied with repeating himself. To celebrate Black History Month, Revolution Rock will feature a program devoted to the music of Miles Davis. This episode will focus on a selection of his recordings throughout his long career.
Rebellious Jukebox: The Music of The Fall and Mark E. Smith
Saturday February 17th
7-9 PM
CJAM 99.1 FM (www.cjam.ca)
Mark E. Smith was one of post-punk’s great deconstructionist agitators. In his forty year career with The Fall, Smith didn’t so much act as a band leader as much as a sonic provoker. While The Fall has literally hundreds of tracks to its name, the compositions arranged by Mark E. Smith and his ever-rotating roster of musical accomplices rarely felt like songs in the traditional sense. The angular and abrasive music made by the band, led by Smith’s idiosyncratic style of spoken/sung fractured rambling, felt more like odd aural experiments, strange tone poems, and at its most extremes, broadcasts from some alien radio station. Smith, while lazily attributed the status of rock-poet, hardly used language to elucidate or beautify. Smith’s strength was in demonstrating the malleability of language, fracturing familiar phrases, garbling syllables, and patch-working words to create a seemingly new variant of English. If anything, Smith showed the arbitrariness of spoken language, taking a piss of the idea of the songwriter/poet, while paradoxically demonstrating astonishing creativity in his heedlessly irreverent compositions. The Fall have released 31 full-length albums, 32 live albums, 40 compilation albums, and many other variants on the recorded album format. This show will feature a selection of songs from The Fall’s prolific, daunting discography.
Northern Passages: The Sadies Radio Special & An Interview With Travis Good
February 24th, 2017
7-9 PM
CJAM 99.1 FM (www.cjam.ca)
The Sadies are described as a Canadian rock/country and western band. Coming from Toronto, Canada, the band is comprised of brothers Dallas and Travis Good, Sean Dean and Mike Belitsky. Dallas and Travis come from a country music family. They are the sons of Margaret and Bruce Good, as well as the nephews of Brian and Larry Good who are members of the Canadian country band, The Good Brothers. Forming in 1994, The Sadies developed their own take on country and western music, incorporating elements of surf, garage rock and other genres. Their first album was released in 1998, and was entitled
. In 2007 their album
was nominated as well. In addition to releasing numerous albums (their 10th full-length album
was released in 2017), The Sadies have also collaborated, performed and recorded with other musicians such as Andre Williams, Neko Case, Blue Rodeo, Garth Hudson, John Doe, and Gord Downie. This is in addition to being involved with other bands such as The Unintended, Heavy Trash, Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet and other groups. This episode will focus on the discography of music involving The Sadies and some of the other artists they have collaborated and recorded with.
Surf music started out by branching off as a subgenre of rock music in the late 50s. The songs were instrumental, had no vocals and were dominated by electric guitars drenched with reverb sound effects. It became associated with surf culture, initially in Southern California. It was first popular from about 1962-1964, and branched off itself into other forms, instrumental and vocal based. Since then, surf music has re-emerged into rock music, in yet other forms. It is sometimes subtle, combined with other forms of rock and sometimes it is still instrumental. On February 24th, the 12th edition of Revolution Surf, a program made up entirely of surf and instrumental music will air on CJAM FM. The music on this episode will take a dive into the world of surf songs that have been featured on movie soundtracks and will also feature a collection of new and older surf/instrumental tracks. Expect to hear some music from films such as 1963’s
(1996), as well as other films and more! Derk of Surf Rock Radio’s, The Surfphony of Derstruction 2000 will also make an appearance on this program, broadcasting his own playlist of newer surf tracks.
Mark E. Smith was one of post-punk’s great deconstructionist agitators. In his forty year career with The Fall, Smith didn’t so much act as a band leader as much as a sonic provoker. While The Fall has literally hundreds of tracks to its name, the compositions arranged by Mark E. Smith and his ever-rotating roster of musical accomplices rarely felt like songs in the traditional sense. The angular and abrasive music made by the band, led by Smith’s idiosyncratic style of spoken/sung fractured rambling, felt more like odd aural experiments, strange tone poems, and at its most extremes, broadcasts from some alien radio station. Smith, while lazily attributed the status of rock-poet, hardly used language to elucidate or beautify. Smith’s strength was in demonstrating the malleability of language, fracturing familiar phrases, garbling syllables, and patch-working words to create a seemingly new variant of English. If anything, Smith showed the arbitrariness of spoken language, taking a piss of the idea of the songwriter/poet, while paradoxically demonstrating astonishing creativity in his heedlessly irreverent compositions. The Fall have released 31 full-length albums, 32 live albums, 40 compilation albums, and many other variants on the recorded album format. This show will feature a selection of songs from The Fall’s prolific, daunting discography.
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