mfw it is tuesday night on datafruits dot eff emm
It’s Tuesday once again, and we’re back on the air on datafruits.fm with ACTUAL PROGRAMMING THIS WEEK!
…and no, I will not be apologizing for last week1. How could you even ask that of me. Ska will never die.
Faux outrage aside, let’s get into our evening’s programming; we’ve got a lot of ground to cover and a lot of records and in-jokes to get into. Seriously, there’s like, six footnotes on this week’s program. I’m back to doing those kinds of deep-dives.
So strap in, get out a web browser that can handle multiple tabs for all these links, and let’s go over what we’ll be playing this week on Talkie Time and The Jazz Program.
Talkie Time : Richard Diamond - The White Cow Case / The Red Rose
(This program schedule was originally aired November 14, 2023.2)
no, Tex, not *that* statuette, wrong statuette. try and keep up man c'mon
We’ve had enough of nail-biting suspense last month –it’s time for something a little goofier.
Okay, alright, CALM DOWN and PUT DOWN THE PITCHFORK. I already told you we’re not doing ska again.3 No, we’ve got something a bit sharper for you this evening, if you can believe that anything is sharper than a two-tone suit. Something brighter, even. More karats.
“A pleasant smile, a cheerful rhyme, and we’ll keep you from doing time” is the tagline for our sharp-witted boy Richard Diamond. Created by Blake Edwards and played by the unfortunately-but-accurately-named Dick Powell, Diamond spends half his cases getting knocked one in the skull…which might be part of why he insists upon ending every case with a song, honestly. Either that, or he was a theater kid. Same kind of damage, really.
We’ve got two of his cases for you tonight. Up first is “The White Cow Case”, originally airing on January 11, 1962, in which our boy goes to find himself a rare art object called “The White Cow”, which sounds like something another detective I know got stuck doing.
March 2nd, 1951’s “The Red Rose” is up next, and while normally I give you all a plot summary I can do you one better this week, thanks to our good friends at OTRR; those madlads tracked down and digitized the original script for this episode! Go take a look when you can, and check out the rest of their script archives while you’re at it–they’ve got a damn good selection of ’em over there.
The Jazz Program : Ginger Baker - Coward Of The County / Unseen Rain / No Material
We aren't playing this one tonight, but if you're into bluesy prog, I highly recommend checking the Baker Gurvitz Army out. Cover art by Best Portland (i.e. the Maine one)'s own Joe Petagno, who's also responsible for Motörhead's logo and about half their cover art as well.
Most folk (including, I’d wager, your dad) know Ginger Baker from his time in prog-rock supergroup Cream, as well as various progressive rock records and groups he worked with (see the record on the right for an example).
This is a damn shame, because in my opinion Baker’s one of the grooviest drummers to ever grace the avant-garde. Not just the avant-garde, either; the man had range, and we’re diving into that range tonight.
As usual, we’ve got three albums for you this evening, and we’re starting you all off with something smooth: 1999’s “Coward Of The County”, by Ginger Baker And The DJQ2O4 With Special Guest James Carter. Not to be confused with the Kenny Rodgers single or the genuinely fucked up Dick Lowry-directed 1981 TV movie of the same name.5
After that, we’re getting a slight bit noisier, with 1995’s “Unseen Rain”, featuring former Yngwie J. Malmsteen’s Rising Force keyboardist Jens Johansson on the keys and long-time collaborator Jonas Hellborg on bass.
And finally–because I know some of you get sleepier as the night drags on, and I am nothing if not helpful–we’ve got the 1989 free jazz banger “No Material”, with half of the legendary free jazz supergroup Last Exit6 (Sonny Sharrock and Peter Brötzmann) in tow on guitar and sax respectively, and Jan Kazda and Nicky Skopelitis on bass and guitar, respectively.
That’s about all we’ve got for this week! Thank you all for reading my deep-dives; I’ve had quite a few folk let me know that they’re thankful these are back, and hearing how much folks enjoy these rambles down jazz- and old-time-radio-lane genuinely makes it worth it.
If you’re reading this the day of, I do hope you tune in live and hang out in the chat with us on Datafruits! We’ve got a good crowd of folks in the chat every week, and whether you have a suggestion for a future show or just want to hang out and chat with fellow jazz enjoyers, you’re welcome here with us.
You’re all amazing and don’t let anyone tell you that you’re not. Stay safe out there, and I’ll see you back again next week. Same time, same station.
Have a good one.
–piper
Footnotes…
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This is not a bit, I actually got complaints about last week. And you know where those complaints went? STRAIGHT INTO THE TRASH BAYBEEE HAHAHAHAHA FUCK YOU SKA RULES ↩︎
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If you’re wondering why only half this show is a re-run this week, it’s half because I’ve half as much time as I’d like, and half because Space Quest Historian finally dropped the Under A Killing Moon chapter of his Tex Murphy retrospective and I immediately remembered this gag I made a few moons ago. Go watch it, if you haven’t already, and then go play some Tex Murphy, dammit. ↩︎
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That would be the “Denver Jazz Quintet-To-Octet”, if you were curious. I was, and I looked ’em up; apparently in the ’90s, Baker ended up in Colorado for a bit, and formed a loose cavalcade of jazz buddies he’d play local shows and jam with after polo matches; these were those buddies. Guess that explains why the group only seem to have one album credit–this one– to their name. ↩︎
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I debated putting this in-line, but I figured the fact that I haven’t linked the IMDB page of a movie despite mentioning it by name and year –and the fact that I called it “fucked up”, and that’s by my standards mind you– should say something in and of itself. With that stated, I am actually putting a content warning here–probably don’t actually go look the plot of this one up. Let’s just say that it’s yet another film from that specific period of Western that really liked fridging women and using…let’s call it “non-consensual cuckoldry” as a core plot element. ↩︎
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I know what you’re thinking, and yes. We are absolutely doing a show on Last Exit at some point. Come on–a free jazz band so abrasive and violent that their main audience was hardcore punk kids? Blistering and opaque walls of sound? Only one studio album before they kicked the bucket, leaving only a series of live recordings and busted lips in their wake? Honey, I used to run an anti-fascist black metal radio show and I got into extreme music via The Dillinger Escape Plan. Last Exit is just Piper-bait waiting to happen. ↩︎