I Was Like...

John Legend - Solo Sessions Live

As you might have noticed, I enjoy live albums. Not that they're my sole musical interest, but I am prone to spend periods engrossed primarily with live recordings, and during the past couple of weeks/months that's been the case. Some of my favourite records across all genres were recorded live: when a great performer is feeling it just right and is paired with the right occasion, they can author their songs in new and interesting ways, fuelled by the crowd and the vibe.

Recorded and released before his breakout 2004 debut Get Lifted (back when Mr Legend was still Mr Stephens), this album features John in a small venue with just a piano, delivering stripped-down solo renditions of the best songs from that album. Both the writing and vocals thrive in a live context, and this recording effectively rendered that studio debut obsolete for me. The soul in the music is amplified in the intimate setting, and John delivers with passion and finesse. He is joined by a couple of guests, including Kanye West for a great version of All Falls Down, but most of the show is just him and the piano, and it's all the better for it.

John Legend - Solo Sessions (Live At The Knitting Factory)

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01. Introduction (by J Ivy)
02. Let's Get Lifted
03. Do What I Gotta Do
04. She Don't Have to Know
05. Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
06. Sun Comes Up
07. Stay With You
08. So High (ft. J Ivy)
09. If This World Were Mine (ft. Imani Uzuri)
10. All Falls Down (ft. Kanye West)
11. Motherless Child
12. Refuge (When It's Cold Outside)
13. Must Be the Way

Dunks and Drunks

Some late thoughts about the remainder of All-Star weekend.

1. Charles Barkley

Chuck's supremacy as a basketball pundit is nothing new, but I felt compelled to share my respect for his on-air talents after this weekend.

The Round Mound of Drunken Hilarity.

Chuck is the most consistently funny sportsman around, as any Google search for his greatest hits will demonstrate. All-Star weekend, and the accompanying party atmosphere (read: abundance of beer) brings out the best in him. It really is an uninterrupted stream of genius when he's had a few. A couple of gems I noted down on Saturday:

• -- After a commercial in which athletes overcome their opponents thanks to drinking Gatorade: "Ever notice that Gatorade doesn't work on guys that suck?"
• -- After a co-commentator notes it'd be impressive if Nate Robinson dunked over some cheerleaders: "It'd be impressive if he was taller than one of them."
• -- As the dunk contest winner is about to be announced: (Hopefully) "Maybe nobody'll win!"

His quotes (however hilarious) don't fully convey his spontaneous brilliance: he's opinionated, blunt, unfocused and funny. So it's fortunate that he's an American sportsman, because were he a ex-footballer, he'd never get on a football show here in the UK. Our TV media seems to be preoccupied with maintaining a subdued, businesslike 'respectable' air on sports shows - sucking all of the fun out of something which is universally-popular precisely because it's fun.

The Christmas tree in the corner says, 'relaxed and jovial'. My face and body language say, 'I'm sorry to bother you at home, madam, but I regret to inform you there's been an accident...'

Most football shows feature interchangeable ex-players who trade uncontroversial and uninteresting cliches ad nauseum. The American modus of "fetch the ex-players who'd be most fun on a night out, provide an open bar, team them with one articulate anchor who can steer the show, and let everybody rant at/cuss each other" is far superior. Sure, it results in occasional chaos, horrible predictions and repeated unintelligble exchanges - but the upside is entertainment, and as a bonus, it precipitates occasional pearls of true wisdom which can only be conjured by drunk assholes.

2. A Disappointing Dunk Contest

Much of Chuck's inebriated ire last weekend was reserved for Saturday's dunk contest, which featured very little in the way of memorable jams. Nate Robinson won out over Demar DeRozan in the final, the pair of them having seen off Shannon Brown and Gerald Wallace in the opening round. Now Nate is an unreal athlete, no question, but his being the NBA's dunk champion for an unprecedented 3rd time does not reflect well on the competition.

The NBA and Sprite spent a lot of time and money promoting this year's competition, including a series of expectant ads with guys rapping, heavy on grandiose imagery which is laughable in hindsight. Their drive to hype the contest was prompted Lebron James' announcement last year that he'd enter: he later withdrew, no doubt wary of the possibility of being upstaged. There would be far too many Witnesses and cameras present for his entourage to destroy all the evidence of a loss.

The hype over Shannon Brown's hops turned out to be exactly that (hype) - he threw down standard jams, absent of creativity or spark. Gerald Wallace, who pulled out some incredible moves in 2002, looked so uninterested that you figure he was there involuntarily. DeRozan submitted the best jam of the night (and should've won, really), a reverse after Sonny Weems flicked it off the side of the backboard.



Nate struggled under the "no props or gimmicks" rule, eventually settling on some alley-oops to himself, which were actually secondary to his 5'8 frame in deciding his victory. The unanimous verdict was that there was a total lack of everything the NBA had promised: excitement, invention, creativity, spectacle.

3. Dwyane Wade: All-Star MVP / Lebron James: Do I Not Like That

The All-Star game itself was as expected: fun, high-scoring, and dominated by great plays from the '03 draft class (Wade, Lebron, Bosh and Carmelo). Disappointingly, the ending came down to a free-throw shooting contest, but there was still time for Melo to heave a hilariously terrible shot at the buzzer to seal the West's loss in front of a record crowd.



The race for the game's MVP was intriguing - each of Wade, Lebron, Bosh and Carmelo made their case during the 4th quarter. But Dallas favoured Dwyane yet again, and Lebron's reaction to Wade's receiving the award was priceless (warning: 8MB gif! Totally worth it, though.)

Rookies Run Riot - Sophomores Slump

Forgive the gratuitously tabloidesque title, I couldn't resist (it was better than the alternative, How about them Rookies, Huh?). The Draft Class of 2009 have snapped a seven-year losing streak for the Rookie side in impressive fashion, with Tyreke Evans and DeJuan Blair dominating proceedings in a 140-128 victory.

The secret to the Rookies' electric energy was said to be Brandon Jennings' New Jack haircut (22 pts, 8 ast, 6 reb, 4 stl).

Nobody (including myself) gave them much of a chance against the size of the Soph's Marc Gasol, Brook Lopez and Kevin Love, and the scoring of Beasley, OJ Mayo, Westbrook et al. But the sheer Blanka-like energy of Blair set the tone, and the unstoppable drives of Tyreke Evans' produced highlights like this:



Amidst a freewheeling, high-scoring game, something quickly becoming clear: Brook Lopez was going to lose his 56th game of the year (including preseason). DeJuan Blair was truly everywhere, gobbling up 23 rebounds to go with his 22 points. The play in which he scored his 20th point summed up his night: Brook raked and smouthered him while he shot, trying to avoid the humiliation of giving up the "20-20" statline. DeJuan's strength was just too much. He sank the bucket, and earned a FT. But despite the symbolic significance of that sequence, the highlight of the night had to have been this monster:



Russell Westbrook tried to reproduce his team-mate Kevin Durant's dominating 46 points in this game last year (Russell scored 40, but lost - a fine Durant impression tbf), firing bundles of jumpers in a fairly naked attempt to break the record and claim MVP. He and Beasley chewed up most of the Soph's possessions, combining for 54 shots. Conversely, the Rookies shared the ball - seven guys took 10+ shots - and conducted energetic perimeter play, negating their size disadvantage.

Eventually, the MVP award went to Tyreke Evans (26 pts, 6 rebs, 5 ast, 5 stl), who graciously offered to share it with a deserving DeJuan.

Another fitting moment-capture: Tyreke and DeJuan hoist the MVP award, while Westbrook gazes wistfully at it, thinking about what could've been...

The Dunk-In:
Eric Gordon took about a dozen attempts on each slam, while DeRozan executed both dunks with an effortless, matter-of-fact brutality. Watching Gordon's repeated misses and growing frustration was akin to watching Dukie fumbling with the pistol in The Wire, failing to cock it back fully, a picture of helplessness.

Erm, is OJ Mayo allowed to help me?

The voting system was predictably screwed up by NBA.com, who apparently don't know the difference between Gordon and DeRozan. Demar won with 61% of the vote, but who did people really have in mind when they clicked the "Vote Now" button? It's like Florida 2000 all over again...

All-Star Celebrity Game: Musings

Mark Cuban demonstrated admirable adversity in the face of having no basketball skills or athleticism, but really gave a better account of himself than any of Chris Mullin, Rick Fox and Robert Horry (who shall henceforth be known as Robert Horry +20%). One might expect them to provide some capable scoring, given their respective NBA jumpshooting pedigrees, but the physical demands of millionaire retirement have clearly wrecked their shooting forms. All have become slow-plodding defensive anchors.

Chris Tucker and Common were late arrivals due to incredible amounts of Texas snow. Their eventual appearance calmed the crowd, many of whom were despairing and advocating cancelling All-Star Weekend altogether. As a stress-dissipating sideshow, various NBA guys were inexplicably dragooned into trying to rope a mechanical calf, a sight so bizarre it resembles a bad Family Guy cutaway (they'd wanted the players to sit on the fake horse, too):

"Hey Melo, you coming to dinner?"

"Yeah alright, but first I got to lasso this mechanical calf."
"What?"

Chris Paul, Pau Gasol, Rajon Rondo and Carmelo Anthony all flailed around in uniformly weak efforts, but it did give Melo one of the quotes of the weekend:

Stu Scott: "I can't believe you grew up in Baltimore, and never did any lassoing?"

Carmelo: "Nah - we see a rope like that, we run!"

As expected, Terrell Owens was getting up for alley-oops and dunks with a fair bit of athleticism, a quality these NFL guys occasionally have. I noticed he was playing a bit like Tyrus Thomas, in the 'raw, unrefined, directionless explosions of athleticism' sense. That was, until TO spotted an opening in the low post, unleashed a tight spin-move around his defender, and dunked - his basketball IQ was clearly somewhat superior to poor Tyrus. Still, we now know that receiving passes in the endzone and catching alley-oops are surprisingly transferable skills. So maybe Tyrus was in the wrong sport all along.

Thankfully, the East pulled out an important 41-37 win. Both teams shot 20%, turned the ball over every ten seconds, played no defense, and generally did their best impressions of the New Jersey Nets. Strangely, Brian Scalabrine claimed MVP honours, but by then I was too distressed to query anything, just wanting it to all be over.

Alice Smith - For Lovers, Dreamers & Me

A favourite of mine from the past decade, For Lovers, Dreamers & Me was bafflingly ignored upon its release in 2006, and went virtually unmentioned in the swathes of 'Decade Round-Ups' which I binged on for a couple weeks over New Year.

When it was released, it suffered from the same sort of pigeonholing which plagued Van Hunt's debut two years earlier. Ostensibly labelled 'neo-soul' (unfortunately a function of her skin tone), it's really a much more varied and interesting record, with grooves cooked up from influences of acoustic, pop, jazz, Beatlesque rock and country, as well as straightahead soul music.

The range of stylistic choices are matched by an equally-eclectic voice. Alice Smith is a genuinely fantastic vocalist, with expressiveness and emotion comfortably-conveyed through four fierce octaves. She excels as much in softer, mellower moments as she does in bombastic sequences of power and energy, and can oscillate along that spectrum with ease and flair. As striking as her technical proficiency is, her gifts aren't milked or overindulged, with the songs remaining central. She draws on jazz, blues, rock, pop, gospel and soul traditions, all of it forming her natural musical palette, one transcending contrived genre-fusion. Delightful music, which unfortunately remains her only release to date:

Alice Smith - For Lovers, Dreamers & Me

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01. Dream
02. Woodstock
03. Gary Song
04. New Religion
05. Do I
06. Fake Is The New Real
07. Desert Song
08. Know That I...
09. Secrets
10. Love Endeavour

Wayne Shorter - Night Dreamer

In 1964, Wayne Shorter had just finished an extended stay in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, and was beginning his tenure with Miles Davis' band (in what would become Miles' Second Great Quintet). Having hit his stride as a player, and with precise command of his talents, his writing was set to ascend to incredible heights in the following years. Night Dreamer, his first recording as a frontman, is less challenging than some of the albums to follow, but remains a classic.

The music falls somewhere between the hard bop workouts of his Art Blakey days, and the exploratory ethos of his then-brief Miles Davis experience. With truly stellar help from Lee Morgan (trumpet), Elvin Jones (drums), McCoy Tyner (piano), and Reggie Workman (bass) - some of the greatest talents on their respective instruments ever - his exceptional compositions are delicately-interpreted and explored.

The song titles (Night Dreamer, Charcoal Blues, Black Nile) are expressive of the prevailing themes and images, with the band's refined performance and Shorter's composing taking the music to gorgeous places. A perennial late-night favourite:

Wayne Shorter - Night Dreamer

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01. Night Dreamer
02. Oriental Folk Song
03. Virgo
04. Black Nile
05. Charcoal Blues
06. Armageddon

Derrick Rose Dunks, 2010

With each game in which Derrick Rose hurls the rock downwards through the hoop like a thunderbolt from Jupiter, he further dissolves the 'sophomore slump' tag which had been foolishly attached to his season (while he was playing through an ankle injury).

In the last couple of weeks, he's stepped such displays up somewhat, and has been submitting some insanely athletic plays, none more than this posterisation of Goran Dragic:

vs. Dragic & the Suns (and the people of Phoenix, and Slovenia), 22nd Jan

Ladies and gentlemen, Latrell Sprewell DERRICK ROSE!

I like Goran Dragic as a player, and I rate him for getting up there to even try and contest the finish. I imagine him telling himself - "hustle, hustle, think positive, try to block, he might miss, he might mi-". At this point the internal narrative cuts off abruptly, as his ego is ripped out and thrown over the crowd like confetti. His name will forever be synonymous with this moment. On the bright side, a generation of young Chicago sports fans will grow up knowing his jersey number.

vs. Harden/Westbrook & the Thunder, 27th Jan

Since the Phoenix game, everybody in the NBA is wary of being the next Dragic (who has not been seen since the dunk), and have stopped trying to contest when Rose drives into the lane. Derrick is happy to oblige with more monsters.

(Check out Brad Miller with the "Yeeeeaaah bwooyeee!" expression 11 secs in)

James Harden and Russell Westbrook hoped to avoid framing their inevitable moment of defeat in a poster, and so didn't even pretend to attempt to block. As a response, I've captured their shame for the ages. Their guilty faces will forever be displayed here, in full Youtube HD glory.

Even better is the full-screen version (not embedded here due to size). You get a clear, insightful look at not only their humiliation, but the disgust of the bench, the crowd, the towel guys, and, I'm convinced, the referee. Click for the pic (will open in new window)

vs the Hawks, 5th Feb

Am I seeing a pattern? Maybe someone should watch the right-hand channel, huh? Salmons' pass was a touch too heavy, but it's no problem: Derrick reaches all the way back, meets the ball past the backboard, hovering just long enough to adjust, and spike it down. Dude's got Hops (with a capital H).

The draft combine claimed he could get up 40'' - I reckon it's a little more. His above-the-rim play, for a guy at his position, is unbelievable. He's an Athlete of a PG in the Steve Francis-Baron Davis mould (again, intentional capitalisation), and I'm looking forward to seeing many more like these three.

Deja Vu

May 2008

Feb 2010

n.b. If you were wondering what the "bad photoshops" in the banner means, this is it.

Bill Withers - Live

Staying with the live album trend for a moment. This '72 performance by Bill Withers was recorded at the height of his popularity and released later the same year, and is a succinct statement of his phenomenal talents.

In a live context, his incredible voice is in its element, the deft expressiveness amplifying the joy and sadness in the songs. There were string overdubs on some tracks, but these classic songs remain as they were performed - restrained and refined; his command of emotive effect transcending the type of overwrought crescendos hounding modern R&B. A true soul legend at the peak of his powers, his character capturing the crowd as easily as the voice and the band's infectious funk workouts. Everything came together just right for a legendary show, and Bill obliged everyone by surpassing the studio versions of many of these classics. Beautiful music.

Bill Withers - Live @ Carnegie Hall, 6th October 1972

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1. Use Me

2. Friend of Mine

3. Ain't No Sunshine

4. Grandma's Hands

5. World Keeps Going Around

6. Let Me in Your Life

7. Better off Dead

8. For My Friend

9. I Can't Write Left-Handed

10. Lean on Me

11. Lonely Town, Lonely Street

12. Hope She'll Be Happier

13. Let Us Love
14. Harlem/Cold Baloney

Gil Scott-Heron - Live

In appreciation of Gil Scott-Heron's upcoming concert in London (April 20th, tickets vanishing quickly people), here's another legendary live recording: Gil's summer '77 show at The Bottom Line club in Manhattan NYC. This is a bootleg recording, but one of impeccable sound quality - a clean swipe right from the venue's mixing board. The MP3's are 320kbps, and the textures and tones from the Rhodes keyboards are as rich and warm as Dubai.

His connection with Brian Jackson on the Rhodes is present and forceful. The pair and the Midnight Band were three years-removed from their classic album Winter In America, and their collaborative intuition is as excellent as ever. The band trade long and adventurous breakdowns in each of the percussion, horns and keyboard sections. Gil and Brian cook for two hours! - progressing seamlessly from insightful and witty monologue/poetry, to subdued, soulful singing and rhythmic jazz-funk jams. (My MP3's are tagged, "Soul" - not adequate, but the best fit. Much soulful energy was exerted in this gig)

Enjoy a fine recording of a very special night (and if you can, enjoy a special night at the South Bank Centre on April 20th too.)

Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson - Live At The Bottom Line '77

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01. New Deal
02. Gumbai
03. Intro to Race Track In France
04. Race Track In France
05. Band Intros ~ Lead in to 95 South
06. 95 South
07. Intro to Hello Sunday, Hello Road
08. Hello Sunday, Hello Road
09. Intro to It's Your World
10. It's Your World
11. Home Is Where The Hatred Is
12. Almost Lost Detroit
13. Intro to Vildgolia
14. Vildgolia (Deaf, Dumb & Blind)
15. Winter In America
16. Under The Hammer
17. The Bottle
18. Intro to Johannesburg
19. Johannesburg

Montreux Legends, 1997

In July 1997, a supergroup convened briefly, to perform a concert at the opening night of the Montreux Jazz Festival. Eric Clapton on guitar, Marcus Miller on bass, David Sanborn on saxophone, Steve Gadd on drums, and Joe Sample on the keys. A debut performance, with an exciting roster of talents all eager to hit stride together.

The five are clearly enjoying each others' abilities, and the results are a mix of some superb jazz and blues. From the smoother, more mellow tunes (In A Sentimental, Layla) to the fiery, uptempo blues jams (Full House, Snakes), there's plenty of solos from everyone, and some stylish genre-fusion. Clapton does (a bit stubbornly?) stick to his refined blues-rock playing, not venturing too far towards the jazz edge of the stage. But of course his blues hand is still masterful, and rests nicely alongside seasoned jazz vets like Miller and Sample.

Legends - Live At Montreux, 4th July 1997

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01 - Introductions

02 - Full House
03 - Marcus #1
04 - Ruthie
05 - Snakes
06 - Goin Down Slow
07 - Peeper
08 - Suggestions
09 - Third Degree
10 - 1st Song Tango
11 - Put It Where You Want It
12 - Shreveport Stomp
13 - In A Sentimental Mood
14 - Layla
15 - Everyday I Have The Blues

Dun Know The Trane

This is a mix which I’ve used a few times to introduce some people to John Coltrane. It’s just an introductory selection of his music, some favourites of mine which I think cover a good range of his career and output. Trane had many different phases, participating in varied movements in music, obsessively seeking out new styles, new methods, new ideas. I tried to include some examples of many of them – from beautiful, restrained ballads (In A Sentimental Mood, Central Park West) to displays of furiously technical brilliance (Countdown), from avante-garde assaults (Sun Ship, Mars) to sombre funereal laments (Alabama), magnificent swinging hard bop (Moment’s Notice, Giant Steps) and enduring collaborations with fellow legends (Take The Coltrane, Monk’s Mood). However, no tracks on here are taken from his most famous and perhaps most important album, A Love Supreme – an incredible suite of music, but best-enjoyed when listened to as a whole (link provided separately, below).

John Coltrane – Dun Know The Trane

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01. Moment’s Notice (Blue Train)
02. Take The Coltrane (Duke Ellington & John Coltrane)
03. Greensleeves (Africa/Brass)
04. My Favourite Things (My Favourite Things)
05. Monk’s Mood (Thelonious Monk Quartet w/ John Coltrane)
06. Lush Life (John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman)
07. In A Sentimental Mood (Duke Ellington & John Coltrane)
08. Alabama (Live at Birdland)
09. Dear Lord (Transition)
10. Central Park West (Coltrane’s Sound)
11. Body & Soul (Coltrane’s Sound)
12. Mr. Day (Coltrane Plays The Blues)
13. I Want To Talk About You (Afro-Blue Impressions)
14. Giant Steps (Giant Steps)
15. Softly As In A Morning Sunrise (The Complete 1961 Village Vanguard Recordings)
16. Countdown (Giant Steps)
17. Sun Ship (Sun Ship)
18. Mars (Interstellar Space)

John Coltrane – A Love Supreme

Coltrane here focuses his soul and spirit into crafting an offering to God: expressing a deeply spiritual journey of struggle and epiphany, and affirming thanks and devotion to the truth and beauty of the almighty. It’s powerfully intense and sublimely emotional, and culminates in Trane playing out the cadence of a poem/prayer he included in the liner notes. Intense and amazing music.

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01. Acknowledgement
02. Resolution
03. Pursuance
04. Psalm

The Pick and Rofl

By way of introduction, I am Superstition. This blog has no purpose or special focus, and in that sense it is similar to millions of other narcissistic personal blogs. In the main, it will be an accumulation of uploads, links, ideas, thoughts, photos, bad photoshops, and such. You might laugh, and you might enjoy some good music.

The eponymous pick and rofl.

The curious title reflects the aimless credo of the blog. Simply materialised in my head as I was signing up to the website (my e-name Superstition was acquired in much the same way, many years ago). I’m both respectful of the spontaneity, and unwilling to think up something less absurd. So the saga begins.