Maria Muldaur - Sweet Harmony (1976)

The title track reveals just about everything a listener will need to know about Maria Muldaur's third time around on the big-label recording scene. The first few moments of instrumental interplay between guitarists Amos Garrett and David Wilcox and electric bassist Bill Dickinson will make old-timers nod in the delight of recalling an era when musicians actually jammed on pop records, and bass players were not just listening to click tracks. Once the song itself starts, it won't take long before the urge to take the album off will also begin, but it is a smarter move to simply move ahead. "Sweet Harmony" the song is overdone, and dated in its sanctimonious hippie white-gospel feel, but "Sweet Harmony" the album clicks at times with some of the finest productions ever created around a Maria Muldaur vocal. "Sad Eyes" would have been a better choice for an opener. The unbeatable rhythm team of bassist Willie Weeks and guitarist Waddy Wachtel -- who, a decade later, would get the nod to back Keith Richards up on solo projects -- really set up a delicious shuffle here, and once the superbly recorded band sound is established, it turns out to be a perfect spotlight for Muldaur's vocal talents. 

A sort of encyclopedia of country, old-time, boogie, and Memphis jug band influences rolls out in her vocal like a barbecue chef in Kansas City spreading out the evening's offerings. For a musician of her intelligence and savvy, aspects of this session must have surely felt like arrival at some kind of professional nirvana. To be singing a Hoagy Carmichael tune -- "Rockin' Chair," an astute choice that the songstress pulls off with great comic flair -- with orchestral backup arranged and conducted by the great alto saxophonist Benny Carter, for example. Does it get any better than that? Not really, and the Carter tracks are some of the best in Muldaur's entire discography, especially "We Just Couldn't Say Goodbye." The way Muldaur goes for a high note on the word "go" -- and gets it, practically yodelling -- is one of her most enjoyable vocal tricks. There are many influences involved in this project, however -- not just master musicians such as Carter, baritone saxophonist Sahib Shihab, and guitarist Kenny Burrell.


Tracklist:

"Sweet Harmony" (Smokey Robinson) – 4:45
"Sad Eyes" (Neil Sedaka, Phil Cody) – 4:30
"Lying Song" (Kate McGarrigle) – 4:07
"Rockin' Chair" (Hoagy Carmichael) – 3:42
"I Can't Stand It" (Smokey McAllister) – 3:37
"We Just Couldn't Say Goodbye" (Harry Woods) – 3:35
"Back by Fall" (Wendy Waldman) – 3:55
"Jon the Generator" (John Herald) – 3:20
"Wild Bird" (Wendy Waldman) – 4:45
"As an Eagle Stirreth in Her Nest" (William Herbert Brewster) – 4:11

Maria Muldaur - Sweet Harmony (1976)

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Mark Stewart & Maffia - Metatron (1990, Mute Records)

Following his eponymous 1987 album, Mark Stewart continued his collaboration with producer Adrian Sherwood and the Maffia (Sugar Hill's Keith LeBlanc, Doug Wimbish, and Skip McDonald).

In 1990, he released "Metatron", his most accessible record to date. On his first three albums, Stewart had juxtaposed expansive dub-oriented numbers with more experimental tracks that made for decidedly uneasy listening. That harsher, more difficult dimension of Stewart's sound is absent from Metatron, which trades experimental cut-ups and electronic noise for relatively seamless, tight techno funk workouts. Indeed, the emphasis here falls on the stellar rhythm section of LeBlanc and Wimbish, who provide a solid foundation for this material.

Tracklist:

1 Hysteria 6:13
2 Shame 6:55
3 Collision 5:20
4 Faith Healer 4:02
5 These Things Happen 6:14
6 My Possession 2:18
7 Possession Dub 3:15
8 Mammon 6:21
9 My Possession 5:39
10 Hysteria Dub 4:00


Mark Stewart & Maffia - Metatron (1990, Mute Records)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Unser Leben im Lied - 30 Jahre DDR (ETERNA, Tape-Box, 1979)

This year will be the 66th anniversary of the founding of the GDR, which was announced by Wilhelm Pieck on 7 October 1949. This event marked the end of a development that had begun shortly after the end of the War. Since 1945, there had been mounting tension between the four allied powers. Although they had jointly declared the formation of a democratic Germany to be their most important goal, their definitions of democratisation were worlds apart. To remember this event, we post "Unser Leben im Lied", a box with three tapes, released in 1969 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the GDR. It is a very interesting compilation with songs from the antifascist resistance and "Aufbaulieder"  (tape 1), children and youth songs (tape 2) and songs from the "Singebewegung" (tape 3).
.

The GDR viewed the whole democratic and revolutionary song tradition as its own cultural inheritance. The "Kampflieder" of Brecht and Eisler and songs from the Spanish Civil War were learned in schools and in the army.

In the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s these songs appeared in song books of the Free German Youth (FDJ) and the Young Pioneers alongside German folk songs and new, so called "Aufbaulieder" written specially for the GDR youth. Songs such as "Fleißig, nur fleißig" and Johannes R. Becher´s "Nationalhymne der DDR" encouraged diligence and a joyful common purpose in the building of the new socialist state. In general, however, the political song genre did not prosper in the 1950s. It was a serious, sacred tradition, not to be tampered with, and the writing of new songs critical of the GDR was unthinkable. On the other hand, as Lutz Kirchenwitz notes, for the young poets of the 1950s, who were inspired by the creation of a socialist state on German soil, the political crises caused by the uprising of 17th June 1953 and the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956 created an atmosphere of disillusionment that was detrimental for the writing of new political poetry and song.

By the early 1960s, a completely new kind of protest song culture was being encountered. The American civil rights song was filtering over the air waves via West Germany through to East Berlin. The building of the Berlin Wall in August 1961 had given the GDR government a sufficient sense of security to relax the severity of censorship in the arts. During this political thaw, which lasted roughly up until the infamous 11th Plenum of the SED in December 1965, an independent folk music scene emerged in East Berlin, based on the informal Hootenanny model made famous by American folk singers such as Pete Seeger.  The Berlin Hootenannies were guided by the resident banjo-playing Canadian Perry Friedman. With his uninhibited performance style, Friedman made German folk songs attractive for the youth and freed the workers´ songs of their sacred aura.

In general during the cultural thaw there was an easier access to western pop music and jazz. In this respect the formation of the Hootenanny-Klub in 1966 was the culmination of four years of musical eclecticism in a vibrant scene in East Berlin that also included Wolf Biermann, Eva-Maria Hagen, Manfred Krug and Bettina Wegner.

The political thaw came to an abrupt end with the 11th Plenum of the Zentralkomitee of the SED in December 1965. Pop groups were banned for their alleged corrupting Western influence. But as Jürgen Tinkus writes, this created a space for folk and singing groups to emerge. In late 1966 it was decided at the highest of levels that the Hootenanny-Klub was to be taken over by the FDJ. With the agreement of several leading members, the groups name was changed to the "Oktoberklub". The writer Gisela Steineckert was installed as a supervisor. This appropriation of the singing youth movement by the FDJ was ideologically motivated. With effective control over all popular performance events, the FDJ had the means to bring it to the masses, and by 1968 thousends of singing clubs had formed all over the GDR. Leaders of the singing clubs were frequently remindet that they had to remain "politische Instrumente des Jugendverbandes." In this way the movement became increasingly instrumentalized as an agent of state propaganda. From 1968 onwards, under the slogan "DDR-Konkret" the FDJ encouraged young students and wokers to write new songs dealing with their everyday lives and with issues of importance to them. This gave a new twist to the concept of revolutionary "Gebrauchslyrik" pioneered by Erich Mühsam in his ealry-twentieth-century "Kampflieder".

The official role of the political song in the GDR was defined by Inge Lammel as follows:
"Die neuen Lieder werden für die Politik von Partei und Regierung geschaffen. Sie sind nicht mehr Kampfmittel einer unterdrückten Klasse gegen eine Klasse von Ausbeutern, sondern Ausdruck der gemeinsamen Interessen aller Werktätigen."

Teil 1 Lieder aus dem Antifastischem Wiederstand:

01 - Einheitsfrontlied -  Großer Chor des Berliner Rundfunks
03 - die Moorsoldaten - Erich Weinert Ensemble der DDR
04 - mein Vater wird gesucht - Christian vom Rundfunk Orchester Berlin
05 - Dank an die Sowjetarmee - Solistenvereinigung des Berliner Rundfunks
06 - Kalinka - Rotbanner Ensemble der Sowjetunion
07 - der Zukunft entgegen - Rundfunk-Jugendorchester Wernigerode
08 - Du hast ja ein Ziel vor den Augen - großes Rundfunk Orchester Berlin
09 - Ein neues Leben will errungen sein - Solistenvereinigung des Berliner Rundfunks
10 - Marsch der fröhlichen Jugend - Zentraler Pionierchor 'Edgar Andre'
11 - Aufbaulied der FDJ - Rundfunk Jugendorchester Leipzig
12 - wann wir schreiten Seit an Seit - Kammerchor des Rundfunk
13 - Heut ist ein wunderschöner Tag - Rundfunk Jugendchor Leipzig
14 - Sportmarsch - Großer Radio DDR Kinderchor
15 - Weil wir jung sind - Orcester des Wachregiments Berlin
16 - Hymnus der Jugend - Chor der Pädagogischen Hochschule Potsdam
17 - Ich trage eine Fahne - Chor der Gerhard Hauptmann Oberschule Wernigerode
19 - Lied vom Bau des Sozialismus - Rundfunk Orchester Berlin
20 - Signale der Jugend - Rundfunk Jugendchor Wernigerode
21 - Immer lebe die Sonne - Rundfunk Kinderchor Berlin
22 - Für den Frieden der Welt - Orcester des Tanzensembles Berlin


Teil 2 Jugend-, Heimat- und Kinderlieder:

01 - Bitte der Kinder - Rundfunk Kinderchor Leipzig
02 - Lied von der blauen Fahne - Großer Chor des Berliner Rundfunks
03 - Im August blühen die Rosen - Großes Rundfunk Orchester Berlin
04 - Auf zum Sozialismus (Fröhlich sein und singen) - Zentraler Pionierchor 'Edgar Andre' Berlin
05 - Getreu der Partei - Orchester des Tanzensembles der DDR
06 - Es geht um die Erde ein rotes Band (Bruder unbekannter Bruder) - Chor der Gerhart Hauptmann Oberschule Wernigerode
07 - Mein Lied ist laut - Hermann Hähnel
08 - Dschungellied (der Jim starb gestern) - Orchester Gerd Natschinski
09 - es lebe das Brot - Chor der NVA
10 - Heute lacht Brandenburg - Chor und Orchester des Staatlichen Volksensembles der DDR
11 - Fritz der Traktorist - Rundfunk Jugendchor Leipzig
12 - Eisenbahnerlied - Rundfunk Jugendchor Wernigerode
13 - Zimmermannstanz - Orchester Gerhard Kneifel
14 - die Heimat hat sich schön gemacht - Zentraler Pionierchor 'Edgar Andre'
15 - es wird einmal in den Schulbüchern stehen - Eva Lorenz
16 - Fuchs und Igel - Hermann Hähnel
17 - tapfer lacht die junge Garde - Erich Weinert Orchester der NVA
18 - Über die Diktatur - Hermann Hähnel
19 - wie Thälmann kampfentschlossen - Erich Weinert Ensemble der NVA
20 - wer möchte nicht im Leben bleiben - Rundfunk Kinderchor Berlin
21 - Republik mein Vaterland - Rundfunkchor Berlin
22 - zwei liebevolle Schwestern - Gisela May

Teil 3 Lieder aus der Singebewegung:

01 - Oktobersong - Oktoberklub Berlin
02 - Song von den gefallenen Genossen - Oktoberklub Berlin
03 - Sag mir wo Du stehst - Hartmut und der Oktoberklub Berlin
04 - der Weg - Singeklub der EOS Büntzow
05 - Lied aus dem fahrenden Zug zu singen - Kurt Demmler und der Singeklub "Venceremos" Berlin
06 - Lied vom Vaterland - Oktoberklub Berlin
07 - Zugvögel - Songgruppe der TU Dresden
08 - Wer bin ich, und wer bist Du - Petra Rechlin und kurt Demmler
09 - Als ich aufsah von den Büchern - Monika Zöllner und der Oktoberklub Berlin
10 - Die Kraniche fliegen im Kiel - Jahrgang 49
11 - Mein kleiner Bruder - Singeklub der NVA
12 - Fahnenlied - Jahrgang 49
13 - Komsomolzenlied - Oktoberklub Berlin
14 - Hiring Aal un Kabeljau - Singeklub "Geschwister Scholl" Wismar
15 - Lied von der unruhvollen Jugend - Folkloretruppe der TU Dresden
16 - Kinder, kommt nun herein - Singeklub "Spartakus" Potsdam
17 - Saigon ist frei - Oktoberklub Berlin
18 - Was wollen wir trinken - Oktoberklub Berlin
19 - Für unser Chile - Jahrgang 49
20 - Havanna '78 - Jahrgang 49

Included is a scan of the very informative booklet with an essay by Inge Lammel about the development of the music in the GDR.

Thanks a lot to the unknown original uploader!

Unser Leben im Lied - 30 Jahre DDR  (ETERNA, Tape-Box, 1979), part 1 (Booklet & Tape 1)
Unser Leben im Lied - 30 Jahre DDR  (ETERNA, Tape-Box, 1979), part 2 (Tape 2 & 3)
(256 kbps, booklet included)

Hai & Topsy Frankl ‎– Jiddische Lieder (1988)

The 1960s were a time of social upheaval the world over, and Germany was no exception. The children of the 1940s were now old enough to wonder what had
happened during the war, and they were not getting many answers from their parents.Though American hippies were able to turn to their own history for ideals of labour and egalitarianism, Germans had no such luxury. Much of their history was tainted by association; the Nazis had appropriated swathes of German culture for their own purposes.

German folksongs were especially suspect. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the Volkslied was used to stitch together the patchwork principalities and
duchies that formed the new German nation. As with other newly-formed nations and nationalities in nineteenth-century Europe, belief in a common mythology
helped unify people. Previously disparate groups were brought together with tales
of a shared heritage. The "Landschaftliche Volkslieder", ‘‘folk songs of landscape’’, were
just one example of the integrationist project - an enormous forty-three-volume
anthology that attempted systematically to incorporate regional folk music into a
national version.

German folk song was thus inextricably bound upwith nationalism, and nationalism had a nasty aftertaste after the Second World War. ‘‘Ever since folk songs were taken over by the Nazis . . . few Germans have been able to sing them with a clean conscience,’’ musicians Hein and Oss Kröher wrote in 1969.

If the German folk song was "verboten" to the younger generation, they would need to take their cues from other traditions, and they did. Judaism was one of those traditions. The culture of the victims was not tainted by association with the Holocaust. Yiddish was somewhat understandable to the German ear. And besides, Yiddish was fun to sing.Why not embrace it?

An important member of the1960s Yiddish music scene was Hai Frankl. Frankl was a Jew who learned Yiddish later in life; he became popular in West Germany, and did much to popularise Yiddish songs on the western side of the Wall. Frankl was born in Wiesbaden in 1920 to a German-Jewish family. Just before the outbreak of war he escaped to Sweden, and, while there, he ‘‘frequently spent evenings with Eastern European Jews, and in long nights at the tavern learned Yiddish songs from them’’, according to Aaron Eckstaedt.

Hai’s father, Dr. Erich Frankl (born in Vienna on September 29, 1880) had been the manager of the porcelain factory belonging to his parents-in-law in Sophienau near Breslau. He served as an officer in the Austrian Army from 1914 to 1918. After 1939 he was a forced-laborer at the BEO Soap-Factory in Dotzheimer Straße in Wiesbaden.

On June 10, 1942, Erich Frankl and his wife Elli (née Schachtel in Charlottenbrunn /Silesia on August 12, 1896) were deported to Lublin and Majdanek – respectively to Sobibor – and murdered. Their daughter Hermine (born in Sophienau /Silesia on March 9, 1922) was able to reach Pyrford, England in a children’s transport and later moved to the USA.

Hai and his Swedish (non-Jewish) wife, Topsy, toured West Germany in the 1960s and 1970s,  singing songs from the labour movement as well as Yiddish folk songs. (They never moved to Germany permanently.)

In 1981 the Frankls released a compilation of Yiddish folk songs, somewhat like Lin Jaldati’s, which helped spark widespread German interest in actually playing Yiddish music, not just listening to it.

Like Jaldati’s collection, the Frankls’ "Jiddische Lieder" presented songs in transliteration and translation, and also included a short history of the Jews of Europe, the Yiddish language, and Hassidism. Unlike Jaldati’s, the Frankls’ collection of songs was accompanied by music including
chords. It was a practical collection intended for actual use.

 Tracklist :

1	Wacht Ojf!	2:05
2	Arbetslose-Marsch	1:49
3	Majn Jingele	2:36
4	Saj schtolz!	1:58
5	Sog nit kejnmol	2:38
6	Schlof majn Kind	2:37
7	Der Becher	3:09
8	Ot asoj nejt a Schnajder	2:23
9	Jid, du Partisaner	1:22
10	Hemerl	1:48
11	Dshankoje	2:33
12	Der Weg is schwer	2:50
13	Schpil-she mir a Lidele	2:18
14	Nigun 1 / Nigun 2	3:19
15	Mir lebn ejbig	1:37
16	Doss jidische Wort	3:24
17	Und du akerst	2:27
18	In salzikn Jam	3:21
19	Di Schwue	1:42
20	Fun wos lebt a Jid	2:31
21	Krigss-Inwalid	4:34
22	Lebn sol Kolumbuss	1:29
23	Majn Sawoje	3:02
24	In Kamf	2:38
25	Schmilik, Gawrilik	1:46
26	Wir wandern	2:34
27	Kirchenglokn	2:44
28	Sol schojn kumn di Geule	3:04

Hai & Topsy Frankl ‎– Jiddische Lieder (1988)
(256 kbps, cover art included)

Hugh Masekela - Is Alive And Well at The Whiskey (1967)

Hugh Masekela has an extensive jazz background and credentials, but has enjoyed major success as one of the earliest leaders in the world fusion mode. Masekela's vibrant trumpet and flügelhorn solos have been featured in pop, R&B, disco, Afro-pop, and jazz contexts. He's had American and international hits, worked with bands around the world, and played with African, African-American, European, and various American musicians during a stellar career. His style, especially on flügelhorn, is a charismatic blend of striking upper-register lines, half-valve effects, and repetitive figures and phrases, with some note bending, slurs, and tonal colors. Though he's often simplified his playing to fit into restrictive pop formulas, Masekela is capable of outstanding ballad and bebop work.

He began singing and playing piano as a child, influenced by seeing the film Young Man with a Horn at 13. Masekela started playing trumpet at 14. He played in the Huddleston Jazz Band, which was led by anti-apartheid crusader and group head Trevor Huddleston. Huddleston was eventually deported, and Masekela co-founded the Merry Makers of Springs along with Jonas Gwangwa. He later joined Alfred Herbert's Jazz Revue, and played in studio bands backing popular singers. Masekela was in the orchestra for the musical King Kong, whose cast included Miriam Makeba. He was also in the Jazz Epistles with Abdullah Ibrahim, Makaya Ntshoko, Gwanga, and Kippie Moeketsi.

Masekela and Makeba, his wife at that time, left South Africa one year before Ibrahim and Sathima Bea Benjamin in 1961. Such musicians as Dizzy Gillespie, John Dankworth, and Harry Belafonte assisted him. Masekela studied at the Royal Academy of Music, then the Manhattan School of Music. During the early '60s, his career began to explode. He recorded for MGM, Mercury, and Verve, developing his hybrid African/pop/jazz style. Masekela moved to California and started his own record label, Chisa. He cut several albums expanding this formula and began to score pop success. The song "Grazing in the Grass" topped the charts in 1968 and eventually sold four million copies worldwide. That year Masekela sold out arenas nationwide during his tour, among them Carnegie Hall. He recorded in the early '70s with Monk Montgomery & the Crusaders.

Tracklist

Mra (Christopher Columbus)	3:57
Little Miss Sweetness	3:32
A Whiter Shade Of Pale	2:58
Up-Up And Away	5:25
Son Of Ice Bag	3:45
Senor Coraza	7:50
Coincidence	3:10
Ha Lese Le Di Khanna	2:58

Hugh Masekela - Is Alive And Well at The Whiskey (1967)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

"Entartete Musik" - Meisterwerke einer verlorenen Epoche

"I have at last learned the lesson that has been forced upon me during this year, and I shall not ever forget it. It is that I am not a German, not a European, indeed perhaps scarcely a human being (at least the Europeans prefer the worst of their race to me) but I am a Jew."--Arnold Schoenberg

After the horrors of World War I, most Europeans expressed their sense of freedom by embracing the roaring twenties. An open-minded lifestyle was emerging from the nightlife of jazz clubs and cabarets. Berlin was at the heart of the bold and innovative music trends of the 1920s and 1930s. Musicians experimented with their art by pushing away from accepted musical forms and finding new ones.

While many Europeans were celebrating new-found freedom in the arts, Germany was already beginning to fall under the shadow of the swastika. For almost 100 years, an atmosphere of antisemitism had been growing in Europe. Richard Wagner, the well-known composer, had spoken publicly against the Jewish people in his booklet, "Das Judenthum in der Musik" (Judaism in Music). The Nazi Party played upon these historic prejudices in their rise to power.

Nineteenth-century psychologists introduced the term degenerate or entartete to describe any deviance or clinical mental illness. Later a broader definition was applied to include scientific literature (medical, biology and anthropology). By 1933 Hitler's Third Reich referred to the mentally ill, communists, Gypsies, homosexuals and Jews as subspecies of the human race. The words "Jewish," "Degenerate," and "Bolshevik" were commonly used to describe any art or music not acceptable to the Third Reich. The Nazi propaganda poster at left is a crude exaggeration of the original poster for the opera Jonny spielt auf. This grotesque figure became the Nazi symbol for all they considered "degenerate" in the arts. Hitler envisioned the day when German culture would be free of "morbid excrescencies of insane and degenerate men."

After the race laws of 1933, the Reichsmusikkammer (Reich Music Chamber) required a registry of all German musicians. As a result, hundreds of talented composers had their work deliberately suppressed and careers ended simply because their race or style of music offended the Third Reich. By 1938, examples of degenerate music were on display at the Entarte Musik Exhibit for the public to view. Famous works by Mendelssohn, Mahler, and Schoenberg were used as examples of unacceptable music. A generation of incredibly innovative and promising musicians was virtually excluded from its place in music history.

From the mid-1990s the Decca Record Company released a series of recordings under the title "`Entartete Musik´: music suppressed by the third reich" covering works by several of the excluded and suppressed artists. Here´s a two CD set giving a good summary of this series.

Tracklist:
Disc 1
1.Ich bin ein Vamp!
2.Wir wollen alle Kinder sein
3.An den kleinen Radioapparat
4.Der Kirschdieb
5.Panzerschlacht
6.Vom Sprengen des Gartens
7.Tante Sues Geschichten - Zwischenspiel 4
8.Das Mäuschen
9.Der Garten
10.Finale: Die Furcht
11.Das waren Kriege (1. Bild)
12.Schau, die Wolken (3. Bild)
13.Komm Tod, du unser werter Gast (4. Bild)
14.Pane, prinásejí tezk² prípad! (1. Szene)
15.Casta diva (3. Bild)
16.VII. Molto Adagio äußerst langsam und seelenvoll "Friede, mein Herz"
17.Vorspiel (DRITTER AKT)
18.Liebwerte Freunde (Vorspiel und Prolog)
19.Ich ging zu ihm (ZWEITER AKT)
20.Einleitung (Teil 1)
21.Oh, das ist mein Jonny! (Teil 1)
22.So hat uns Jonny aufgespielt zum Tanz (Teil 2)
23.Charleston, Charleston tanzt die Welt
24.Ein kleiner Slowfox mit Mary

Disc 2
1.Shimmy
2.Die Marionetten
3.Erster Akt
4.Ouvertüre
5.Commedy Of Errors - Ouverture
6.Vorspiel (DRITTER AKT)
7.3. Gigue
8.Zwischenspiel
9.3. Alla singaresca - Tempo 1 Allegro molto
10.3. Largo e misterioso - Der Mond und ich
11.II. Lento
12.Intermezzo: Totentanz (2. Bild)
13.Blues
14.Marsch

.
"Entartete Musik" - Meisterwerke einer verlorenen Epoche

(256 kbps, cover art included)

Dave Van Ronk - Van Ronk (1971)

"Dave and I both had a love/hate relationship with this album, because it had some of his greatest material but the arrangements keep undercutting or overwhelming his vocals. His take was, "they gave me impressive recording budgets, and we worked out some pretty interesting arrangements, with strings and horns and what-all. I enjoyed that, at times, and it gave me a chance to do some material that I would not have otherwise done, though I also was coaxed into doing some arrangements that even at the time seemed overblown and buried the material."

In this period he had fully committed himself to the new styles being created by friends like Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen, which he thought of as a new kind of art or cabaret song and mixed with Brecht and Jacques Brel. His version of Mitchell's "Urge for Going" stays pretty close to his guitar chart, with nice strings, and is altogether a good example of what he could do with full orchestration (though he hated the drums), and "Legend of the Dead Soldier" is one of his most frighteningly powerful versions of a Brecht lyric. Peter Stampfel's "Random Canyon" is Dave at his most intentionally and ridiculously bombastic, and works just fine. "Fox's Minstrel Show" is a strange piece of material, but well suited to the big arrangement, and although Dave eventually decided that Brel's "Port of Amsterdam" was too drenched in nostalgie de la boue, he sings it well. Dave kept toying with the idea of rerecording the material he liked best from this album, but was held back by the fact that he never worked out his own ways of performing things like the Brel or Randy Newman's "I Think It's Going To Rain Today. All in all, this is a mixed bag, but well worth hearing after one knows his basic repertoire--I find it exciting to revisit it once and a while and wonder what he might have done if he'd had the chance to go on experimenting with these kinds of production values."  - Elijah Wald

Tracklist:

Bird On The Wire	3:55
Fox's Minstrel Show	3:05
Port Of Amsterdam	3:25
Fat Old John	1:06
Urge For Going	4:37
Random Canyon	2:05
I Think It's Going To Rain Today	3:50
Gaslight Rag	2:55
Honey Hair	3:15
Legend Of The Dead Soldier	4:05
Ac-cent-tchu-ate The Positive	2:30

Dave Van Ronk - Van Ronk (1971)
(ca. 256 kbps, cover art included)

VA - Brain Festival Essen (1977)

 "Brain" was the pioneer German label in electronic music and krautrock, established by A&R men Bruno Wendel and Günter Körber in late-1971 as a co-release label in partnership with Metronome. In 1974 Körber left to set up his own Sky Records.

This is a rip of a 2 record set, featuring artists on the Brain label, performing at a festival in Essen, Germany in 1977. The gigs were recorded by the great Conny Plank.

Thanks a lot for the original posting at http://toterallee.blogspot.de some nine years ago...

Tracklist:
 

LP 1:
1.	Gate - Friedrichstraße 18		7:05
2.	Novalis - Wer Schmetterlinge lachen hört		9:14
3.	Release Music Orchestra - Rico		6:50
4.	Jane - Expectation		5:40
5.	Jane - Out In The Rain		6:06
LP 2:
1.	Message - River Field		5:46
2.	Guru Guru - I'm Really Into Rock 'N' Roll, Man		5:58
3.	Guru Guru - All We Need		4:40
4.	Ruphus - Second Corner		6:34
5.	Ruphus - No Deal		7:45

VA - Brain Festival Essen (1977)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Werkstattwoche der FDJ-Singeclubs (1968, Amiga)

"Singe-Bewegung" and "Oktoberklub" in East Germany, part 7.

Until the 1960s, Anglo-American dance music is regarded in the GDR as valueless "Western Arts". As a Socialist alternative to the rock ' n' roll, 1959 even a private dance, the "Lipsi", is being developed. As a result of the cultural and political opening in 1963, many beat groups were formed and a GDR's own "Liedermacher" and singer-songwriter scene emerges.

The "Free German Youth" (FDJ) tried to instrumentalize this music movement. The FDJ organized "Deutschlandtreffen 1964" presented for the first time music in English language. In the context of poetry events of the FDJ, Manfred Krug and Wolf Biermann present critical lyrics. In 1965 the SED gave order to dismiss a guitar competition organized by the FDJ. After the end of the political thaw period, the FDJ tried to integrate the singer-songwriter and the beat groups in the FDJ and SED influenced "Singebewegung"

With several thousand Singeklubs, in which mainly folk music is made, the FDJ tried to bring their ideological and political work into everyday life of young people. The "Vorzeigesingeklub" was the Berlin based "Oktoberklub", which established in 1969 also the first discotheque in the GDR. Although not without success, the Singebewegung couldn´t replace the beat music. In the following years the unbroken beat enthusiasm of young people forced the GDR leadership to an offensive strategy: The development of an own DDR-specific rock music scene since the 1970's, as well to use this media for ideological and political messages.


The GDR radio programm "Jugendsender DT 64" organised between September, 24 and October, 1, 1967 in Hally the "1. Werkstattwoche der FDJ-Singeclubs". This albums features recordings from this workshop with 300 artist and 16 "Singeclubs".

Tracks:
(01) Bernd Walther & Folkloregruppe der TU Dresden - Carpe Diem
(02) Wolfgang Grahl & FDJ-Singestudio Müritz - Spottlied auf einen Moskaubesucher
(03) Antje Kankel - Das ist unser Tag
(04) Folkloregruppe der TU Dresden - Zygan Chodit
(05) Panajota Ruli & Klaus-Georg Eulitz - Kathe Mera
(06) Kurt Demmler - Zart soll es bleiben
(07) Kurt Demmler - Kastanie, Kastanie
(08) Antje Thümmler & Ulrich Stephan & Folkloregruppe der TU Dresden - O lenke durch die Welle
(09) Singklub Leipzig - Abendgedanken
(10) Herbert Lappe & Folkloregruppe der TU Dresden - Und darum trägt unsere Welt heut ein neues Gesicht
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(11) Nora Löhr & Wolfgang Gregor - Venezolanisches Marktlied
(12) Jörn Fechner & Oktober-Klub Berlin - Mamita Mia
(13) Henry Jäger - Musja Pikinson
(14) Barbara Kellerbauer & Folkloregruppe der TU Dresden - Lied von der unruhvollen Jugend
(15) Frank Obermann & Sing-Klub 67, Karl-Marx-Stadt - Unsere Welt hat ein Millionengesicht
(16) Hartmut König & Oktober-Klub Berlin - Die Front der Patrioten ruft
(17) Panajota Ruli & Folkloregruppe der TU Dresden - Drapetis
(18) Nora Löhr & Wolfgang Gregor - Auseinandergehen
(19) Dorit Gäbler - Icke
(20) FDJ-Singestudio Müritz - Wir singen, weil wir jung sind

Werkstattwoche der FDJ-Singeclubs (1968)
(256 kbps, front cover included)

Völker hört die Signale - Internationale Arbeiterkampflieder (ETERNA)

This compilation of classic worker songs was released on the ETERNA label in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). It features choral versions of classic worker songs like "Die Internationale" or "Brüder, zur Sonne, zur Freiheit" and songs related to the anti-fascist fight in the Spanish civil war - like "Bandiera Rossa" and "Spaniens Himmel" -  sometimes with a solo voice, sometimes without.

Tracklist:

01 Rundfunkchor Berlin - Die Internationale 03:40
02 Rundfunkchor Berlin - Brüder, zur Sonne, zur Freiheit 01:47
03 Rundfunkchor Berlin - Dem Morgenrot entgegen 02:54
04 Rundfunkchor Berlin - Die Arbeitermarseillaise 01:53
05 Rundfunkchor Berlin - Matrosen von Kronstadt 02:07
06 Rundfunkchor Berlin - Unsterbliche Opfer 02:03
07 Rundfunkchor Berlin - Sozialistenmarsch 02:06
08 Rundfunkchor Berlin - Im Kerker zu Tode gemartert 02:35
09 Rundfunkchor Berlin - Brüder, seht, die rote Fahne 02:50
10 Rundfunkchor Berlin - Warschawjanka 02:40
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11 Rundfunk-Jugenchor Wernigerode - Bandiera Rossa 01:46
12 Rundfunk-Jugenchor Wernigerode - Wann wir schreiten Seit an Seit 02:01
13 Jugendchor Berlin - Entgegen dem kühlenden Morgen 01:57
14 Rundfunk-Jugenchor Wernigerode - Solidaritätslied 02:22
15 Rundfunk-Jugenchor Wernigerode - Spaniens Himmel 01:49
16 Hermann Hähnel - Einheitsfrontlied 02:59
17 Hermann Hähnel - Die Moorsoldaten 02:24
18 Rundfunk-Jugenchor Wernigerode - Wir sind die erste Reihe 02:03
19 Rundfunk-Jugenchor Wernigerode - Sein rotes Banner 02:35
20 Rundfunkchor Berlin - Hammer

Völker hört die Signale - Internationale Arbeiterkampflieder
(224 kbps, cover art included)

Schmetterlinge - Die letzte Welt (1982, Eigelstein)

"Die letzte Welt" is a double album by Schmetterlinge, released in 1982 on Eigelstein. Schmetterlinge were a long-running Austrian group, formed 1969 in Vienna. 

They started as a folk ensemble but later evolved into a complex theatrical progressive band, with "Sparifankal" and "Floh De Cologne" touches, moving onto progressive rock-opera.



Tracklist:

Ouvertüre
Ein blauer Ball
Die apokalyptischen Reiter
Commander Madman und General Freak
Wahnsinnschoral
Wutlied
Lied des Guru
Lied der Missionsschwester
Lied des Offiziers
Lied des Beschwichtigungspolitikers
Lied des Unternehmers
Meckersong
Mister Kapital
Tango der Macht
Ketchup aus Mexico
Goldener Weizen
Madrigal
Alles fließt
Krisensong
Naives Lied
Das Märchen von der schwarzen Braut
Das Krähenlied
Lied des Rüstungsarbeiters
Trotzlied

Schmetterlinge - Die letzte Welt (1982, Eigelstein)
(192 kbps, cover art included)

Olodum - Revolution In Motion

Olodum is a cultural group based in the black community of Salvador, the capital city of the state of Bahia, Brazil.

One of many similar groups in the city (and elsewhere in Brazil), it offers cultural activities to young people, largely centered around music; it also offers theatrical productions and other activities.

Founded in 1979, its stated aims are to combat racism and socio-economic inequality, to encourage self-esteem and pride among African Brazilians, and to fight for civil rights for all marginalized groups. The group is an active participant in carnaval each year. The group draws 4,000 people to parade in the bloco (which has about 200 musicians) at Salvador carnival, gives lectures on social and political issues, and publishes a monthly news journal, Bantu Nagô. The group also runs a factory for clothes and musical instruments sold to the public and a school for Salvador's poor children.

During the Bahia Carnival Olodum, along with such other afoxe blocos as Ara Ketu, Timbalada, Geronimo, and Filhos de Ghandi, parade in amazing costumes through the streets of Salvador on wild mobile floats, their music shouting out though the streets via loudspeakers.

In 1995, Olodum appeared in the music video for Michael Jackson's single, "They Don't Care About Us". The music was changed slightly to fit Olodum's style of drumming. The "Olodum version" (unofficial title) of the song has since become more popular than the original album version. Olodum also performed on Paul Simon's album "The Rhythm of the Saints".

Tracklist:

1	Etiopia Mundo Negro
2	Luz E Blues
3	Reggae Odoya
4	Olodum Ologbom
5	Jeito Faciero
6	Iemanja Amor Do Mar
7	Unindo Uma Miscigenacao
8	Banda Reggae Olodum
9	Madagascar Olodum
10	Ad Duas Historias
11	Oh! Luar Do Setrtao
12	Revolta Olodum
13	Ranavalona
14	Cansei De Esperar

Olodum - Revolution In Motion (1992)
(256 kbps, artwork included)

Maria Farantouri - Ligo Akoma - Lieder aus Griechenland (Pläne, 1980)

Originally posted in September 2015:

Yesterday I had the chance to experience Maria Farantouri live on stage, celebrating the 90th birthday of Mikis Theodorakis. I am still deeply impressed!

A well-known Greek vocalist and political activist, Maria Farantouri is considered one of the foremost interpreters of Greek music, especially the work of composer Mikis Theodorakis. A contralto singer with a deep, resonant voice, Farantouri is sometimes referred to as the Joan Baez of Greece, and over the years has moved from traditional and folk styles to more jazz, classical, and avant-garde works. Born in Athens in 1947, Farantouri first began singing in her youth as a member of the progressive choir of the Society of Greek Music, which worked to support new music based on Greek traditions. By her teens she caught the ear of Theodorakis, who invited her to join his ensemble. This led to a time of great creative and social awakening for Farantouri, who along with Theodorakis´ culturally and politically left-leaning work, helped popularize the writing of many important Greek poets.

From 1967 to 1974, Farantouri was forced into exile after a right-wing military junta staged a coup in Greece. During this time, she and Theodorakis made several protest recordings in Europe and expanded their work to included the writing of Bertolt Brecht and Spanish composer Carlos Puebla, as well as many Greek composers including Eleni Karaindrou and Mikalis Bourboulis. Also during this period she released the anti-fascist recording "Mauthausen Cycle," a work by Theodorakis featuring the writing of poet Iakovos Kambanellis. Often referred to as a hymn to human rights, the cycle would become one of Farantouri's signature recordings. After returning to Greece in 1974, Farantouri resumed her successful recording career and began to expand her sound in a variety of directions, including jazz.

Never wavering from her political views, she was elected to the Greek Parliament and served from 1989 to 1993, representing the Panhellenic Socialist Movement. She continued to record from the mid-'90s onward and released a cornucopia of albums in various styles, even including a collection of George Gershwin standards in 2007. While she most often performs works by Greek writers and composers, Farantouri continues to expand herself creatively and can interpret nearly any style of music in her own unique way. In 2011, she appeared on the live album "Athens Concert" with jazz saxophonist Charles Lloyd and his quartet.

Maria Farantouri -Ligo Akoma - Lieder aus Griechenland (Pläne, 1980)
(256 kbp, front cover included)

Lokomotive Kreuzberg - Kollege Klatt (1972)

Lokomotive Kreuzberg was a Berlin polit-rock band founded in early 1972. The group performed in various formations touring extensively through Germany until 1977 at the dissolution of the group when finances became an issue.

The group consisted of founding member Andreas Brauer (vocals, keyboards, violin, flute, guitar, percussion), lyricist Kalle Scherfling (vocals), Volker Hiemann (vocals, guitar) and Uwe Holz (drums, vocals, harmonica, percussion). Later they were joined by Uve Müllrich (Guitars, Bass) and he also played bass in Embryo, and was founder of the Dissidenten. He was replaced from 1973 by Bernhard Potschka, Manfred Praeker and Herwig Mitteregger from 1976. Members later played in the Nina Hagen Band and later founded German rockers Spliff.

The band released a number of albums; "Kollege Klatt" (1972), "James Blond - Den Lohnräubern auf der Spur" (1973), "Fette Jahre" (1975), "Mountain Town" (1977).

Lokomotive Kreuzberg played funky krautrock, with some folk rock, sounding similar to Gong and Mother Gong. The lyrics are left wing with a direct political message. Here´s their debut "Kollege Klatt" from 1972.

Tracklist:

A1	Abfahrt	2:45
A2	Ein Mann geht die Straße lang I	4:56
A3	Was glaubst du was du bist	5:02
A4	Wenn ick nach de Arbeit	5:08
B1	Ich könnt' ein Kommunist wohl sein	5:12
B2	Ein Mann geht die Straße lang II	2:52
B3	Lohnpredigt	5:04
B4	Geldsack	5:26
B5	Solidaritätslied	3:00

Lokomotive Kreuzberg - Kollege Klatt (1972)
(192 kbps, cover art included)