Bebo Valdes and Cachao

This video is just amazing: two masters of musica Cubano playing a duet in Stockholm, Sweden. It's impossible to watch this without feeling the decades these guys have put in along the way. Everything about the performance is beautiful and perfect. Such timing!

Cachao especially has such an effortless technique. At the beginning, he's barely bowing the bass when he plays. Then for his final solo, he's almost using the bow as a drumstick against the neck, slapping away and digging in.

But the best part is the very end, when they finish and look at each other. Bebo points at his buddy and gives him this "You're the man" smirk that's totally priceless.

New Podcast: Sevens Clash (#11)

Photo by Sarah Ross/CC, not my records


I received a box full of 45s in the mail last week, all from tiny and obscure or medium-sized and established labels. I decided to mix through them this weekend to sample them, and I let the recorder roll as I did so. The result is this 40-minute slab of funk and soul, with a little bit of reggae and afrobeat. You know, my usual thing.

Some fresh gems here, and some forgotten oldies that have recently been reissued. Labels represented include Truth & Soul, Now and Again, Daptone, Lion's Bread (the Lions own label), Mocambo, Ricky Tick (from Finland!) and a little Stones Throw (a mix of a couple of Madlib's Yesterday's New Quintet tunes) at the end.

So enjoy, either streaming here or as a download you can carry with you. Long live the mighty seven inch vinyl 45!


Sevens Clash (Veggie Burritos Podcast #11) by snackfight