Corby's Orbit

Corby's Orbit
Listening in All the High Places illustration by John Kricfalusi

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Playlist for show of Friday, 27 July, 2012




Guests Shawna Caspi & Tich Maredza.
 (brought to you by Glee Beams, On Your Market, Get Set, GO, & The Freestyle Guitar Olympix)


5:00  Endless Endeavours For A Perfect Forever
*Cold Specks ~ Steady ~ I Predict A Graceful Expulsion @ The Great Hall, Wednesday August 8
*Hinterlandband ~ Staying In The Curl ~ Bon Echo  @ The Rivoli tonight for Pop With Brains
Kenji Kawai ~ Making Of Cyborg ~ Ghost In The Shell Sdtrk. (People Love Machines In 2029)
*Austra ~ Shoot The Waters ~ Fort York tomorrow
The XX ~ Basic Space ~ @ The Phoenix Saturday


5:30 Caspi’s Aspirations
*Shauna Caspi ~ Navigators / Interview / I Don’t Miss The Speed (live)/ The Runner (live)
        @ Musideum Tuesday 31 July 7:30

6:00 Detour On Root
Carolina Chocolate Drops ~ Mahalla ~ @ Hugh’s Room Tues., 25 September
*Grainne Ryan ~ Big Yellow Machines @ The Red Garnet, Peterborough, Tuesdays 8-10
*Modern Grass Quartet ~ Winter ~@ The Silver Dollar Tonight ~ Pop Montreal Pop Off

6:10 Funk Buddies
*Scott McLeod & The Bona Fide Truth ~ Turn Around @ Beaches Jazz Fest all weekend
*KC Roberts & The Live Revolution ~ Between The Cracks @ Beaches Jazz Fest all weekend
Illustration by Leo & Diane Dillon

6:20 A Tich of Africa
*Tich Maredza ~ Tiri Pandema / Interview / Gadzarisa
Zongo Junction ~ Oh Why? @  This Ain't Hollywood, Hamilton, 6 Aug. & The Rex Tuesday, 7 August
Gétatchèw Kassa ~ Tezeta Slow / Fast ~ Éthiopiques

6:30  Iconic Harmonics
*Minor Empire ~ Sen Bu Yaylalari Yaylayamazsin @ Harbourfront
*The Jessica Stuart Few ~ Don’t Ya ~ Video release @The Rivoli Thurs., August 9
*Faye Blais ~ Michelle ~ On The Bright Side CD release tonight @ The Drake Underground


6:50   Toronto Trip Tips and Wanderlusty Listings over Charles Fambrough’s  Sand Jewels

Friday, July 27, 2012

Playlist for show of Friday, 20 July, 2012


 (brought to you by Whistle-Blowers, Counter Conspiracy Theorists, and The Insurgent General)
5-7 p.m. online http://www.radioregent.com/ and at tunein.ca .  Canadians in Asterisk’d RED.


5:00  Super Power Surge
Aquabassino ~ I’m A Believer ~Rue De Paris
Prince ~ Batdance ~ Batman Sdtrk., 1989
*K.C. Roberts ~ Gotta Get Me Moving ~ @ Harbourfront Hot ‘n’ Spicy Fest Saturday, Beaches Jazz
*JoJo & The Fugitives ~ Fugitive Song ~ Reggae To Toronto ~ @ Beaches Jazz Tonight
*Jahmeel Spence (1983-2010, Scarborough gun victim) ~ Pressures of Life ~  for Joshua and Shyanne
Edwin Starr ~ War ~ King Britt Remix


5:30  Affectionate Affinities
Stevie Wonder feat. Bob Babbit on bass ~ Signed Sealed Delivered ~ DJ Smash Essential Funk Mix
*Tanika Charles ~ I Am Your Woman @ The Orbit Room Tribute to Amy Winehouse Monday
*Cameo Blues ~ All About My Girl ~ 10,000 Hours
*Sarah Burton ~ My Man ~ Fire Breather ~ @ Cloak and Dagger Wednesday
*Suzie Vinnick ~ How’d You Know I Missed You? ~ Live At Bluesville
*Faye Blais ~ Over The Mountains ~ On The Bright Side CD Release The Drake Underground Friday 27th July  
*Meredith Shaw ~ King Of The Road ~ @ The Piston Thursday
*Safety Show ~ You Am I ~ O Burro!
*Graydon James & The Young Novelists ~ It Takes All Kinds @The Rivoli tonight and @Fast Folk Festival Saturday
Bob Dylan ~ She Belongs To Me (Take 1) ~ No Direction Home ~ Dylan Tribute @ Hugh’s Room Saturday 
                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                             
6:15  Revival of the Fittest
Etana ~ Roots ~ @ Can Jam, Sound Academy Saturday
Glen Brown / King Tubby ~ Father Of The Living ~ Termination Dub
Laika ~ Starry Night ~ Sounds Of The Satellites
*Hobson’s Choice ~ As Long As There Are Birds ~ @The Tranzac tonight
Maroon 5 feat. Rozzi Crane ~ Come Away To The Water ~ The Hunger Games Sdtrk.

6:40 Clubs & Concert Listings Within Crawling Distance
Over Roberto Fonseca’s El Niejo, Mil Congojas, and Triste Alegria (Zamazu)

*Laura Repo ~ Sleepy Baby @ The Gladstone Saturday
Amy Campbell ~ Bricks ~Letters Home ~@ Hugh’s Room Tuesday
Pieta Brown ~ Glory To Glory ~ Mercury

Friday, July 20, 2012

Fun Abundant



Saturday, July 21st ~ 8:30pm
A remarkable 8 member ensemble of gifted musicians, from numerous points of the musical compass, will perform the music of Bob Dylan on July 21 at Hugh's Room. Only a few months after Dylan’s 71st birthday.  Award winning playwright, actor and musician Robert Morgan (aka Bobby Jones) has assembled players from various musical persuasions to present Dylan's music, poetry and message.
Eighteen years ago Morgan took a hiatus from his primary work as a theatre artist and produced a show based on the music and life of Bob Dylan. That show was a hit at the Toronto Fringe Festival and the subsequent run at the Bathurst Street Theatre. The performance at the Registry is a rebirth of this vision.
Joining Morgan will be seven-time CCMA guitarist of the year and JUNO Award nominee Wendell Ferguson. Guitarist George Axon has been part of the Canadian music industry for decades writing and producing music for television and theatre. Rick Sacks, artistic director of the internationally acclaimed Array Music Ensemble joins this group as drummer and percussionist. Back-up vocalist Lynn Simmons has performed regularly with the famed Tafelmusik Baroque Chamber Choir and the Toronto Oratory choir. Pianist Ed Michael Roth has worked with the likes of Rick James and Daniel Lanois. Bassist Hap Roderman's Toronto roots go back to electric contemporary art music including groups such as Rough Trade, jazzman Mark Sepic's and myriad others. Waterloo saxophonist Willem Moolenbeek adds his capable chops to round out the group.
The Music of Bob Dylan with Bobby Jones & Friends
Saturday, July 21 ~ 8:30pm
Hugh's Room
2261 Dundas Street
Tickets $22 $25 at the door








 And for those in the Highlands looking for cottage country comfort on a Sunday afternoon
Check out:


Wednesday, July 18, 2012

A Far Cry - Minor Empire on Tour



If asked, how would you describe your impression of Turkish music?
If you’d had the opportunity to form one at all, it might sound something like this: initially you are impressed by the ornate vocal calligraphy, in misty scansion, as if echoing from high minarets.
Then you are hit by abstract musical vocabularies of disconnected intervals, spidery harps, and squeaky horns playing, like that sound you hear when blow on a tight blade of grass between your palms…
That is what you were thinking, right?
So try this one on: sexy electronic atmospheres with unwinding lyrical meditations, rolling through melodic modal changes, and outbursts of staccato percussion and cold fusion guitar pyrotechnics, with bass reverberations that spring into the realms of techno and dub: yikes! Can this also be Turkish music? Y’think?
Absolutely, yes! These qualities define the unique domain of Minor Empire, proud winners of the World Group of the Year Award at the 2011 CFMAs, with their new romantic, Ottoman-tic sounds, a magnetic cohesion of modern global musical thought, and virtuosic musicianship, formed and formulated here in Toronto.
Why so cool? I asked Ozan Boz, the band’s tidy architect, in a Bloor West cafe. “Because we do it from scratch.”
He speaks thoughtfully, “It’s all reflective of our Turkish roots, of course. We’ve paid attention to covering all of the geography and the various traditions of our country: Balkan, Black Sea, South East. But everyone tries to avoid stereotypical impressions of what they do. So we try not to sound like anyone else. It’s intuitive.”
In matters of intuition, he relies strongly upon his lissome vocalist and partner, Ozgu Ozman, whose shamanic mystique is the focus of their compelling live show.
As a result of the fall she took while entering the Isabel Bader Theatre on their victorious night at the CFMA’s, she has spent much of the year on crutches. Now on the verge of a summer tour, she has employed all the down-time in creating new songs.
“There is a screening process,” she smiles. ”To keep the music’s integral force, we have to have strong feelings about it. We isolate ourselves…carefully…to arrange the structures, the ideas, the unique qualities of each song.”
Ozan explains, “We start with simple things, but they have to be different. She will run upstairs and say, ‘Don’t stop playing that! That’s good!’ Then, without forcing, without formulation, we develop a sound. The unorthodox arrangements that we end up with are the products of the freedom we have to experiment and reflect. We create that freedom before we start to do the work.”
“We don’t care if it makes sense to others because it made sense to us,” Ozgu continues, “The goal is to not be afraid to put something out that you know is good.” They find that Canada provides the necessary fertility and freedom for song writing. Repression of the media is a sore spot in their homeland, which is otherwise a vibrant, competitive Islamic democracy.
“Turkey has been a bloodbath country throughout its history. The artists have to struggle to remain stable. This collective memory brings a lot of insecurity,” Ozan murmurs. “But we want that side to co-exist with our personal musical creation. The microtonal scales and meters are obviously Turkish, but there is a simultaneous feeling of where we are now, of the continuing heartbeat. It’s like two musics co-existing. It’s “Second Nature”, as our album title says. The terminology the press uses to describe the complexity of music hasn’t really expanded at the same rate as music has.”
The ineffable quality of Ozgu’s voice at the center of each song is the jewel from which the band radiates. Her charisma at center stage is both becalming and insurrectionary as the stream of her breathy voice urges the band and audience into deep feelings of longing and tranquility. “I rely on a lot of breath and chest voice for those meditative effects. The key is the breath coming in,” she confides. “We don’t do much post production on the voice,” smiles Ozan, proudly.
How important is it to be funky? “Very!” he insists. “I fool the dancers. I always place the beat squarely on the one, especially in the unusual time signatures. It feels like a strong downward kick, although the song may be in signatures of six, or seven or thirteen.”
Besides the print on the jewel case, there is no English on the disk. How do they communicate the cultural rudiments of their compositions to their Canadian cohort, including jazz guita r don Michael Occhipinti, progressive percussionist Debashis Sinha, and ambient bass strategist Chris Gartner?
“If I tell them the story of the lyrics, they can come to a response through innuendo, or abstraction,” says Ozgu. “We begin a song with a solo on the traditional saz or kanun to establish the terrain of the song” Ozan adds, “They understand what we are going for:” and he makes a lifting gesture, “The FEEL. There is a co-existence of different ideas. And they make some good calls.”
Michael Occhipinti identifies himself as “the improvising guy” in the outfit. “The melodies are so powerful that they create emotions which sustain lengthy improvisation,” he explains. “And Chris Gartner just makes everything so funky, you get sucked in.”
Part of this complex appeal is Michael’s use of electronic effects. “Like most guitarists, I’m not completely happy unless I’m stepping on a pedal. By manipulating sound and creating textures, a psychedelic quality comes out that’s really fun. It’s through juxtaposing folk music with some very modern ambience that Minor Empire achieves its transcendence.”
The addition of the intuitive Toronto trumpeter Lina Allemano to the current touring lineup promises further levels of sophistication in the live blend, as the band travels from the west coast through The Islands Folk Festival in Duncan B.C. July 20, The Mission Folk Festival July 21-22, Festival Place in Edmonton July 25, The Banff Centre July 27, and Toronto’s Harbourfront homecoming on July 28, prior to a grand finale at Hillside in Guelph July 29.
Inspiration galore will be provided by this young and innovative group of master players. Don’t miss the opportunity.

Friday, July 13, 2012

Playlist for fifth anniversary show of Friday, 13 July, 2012


 (brought to you by Mixed Metaphor Happy Hour, Stringless Yoyos, & Woody B. Goode)

Guest Amy Campbell.

5-7 p.m. online http://www.radioregent.com/ and at tunein.ca .  Canadians in Asterisk’d RED.
Playlist also available in graphic detail at: http://djpaulcorby.blogspot.ca/ and videos athttp://www.youtube.com/user/CorbysOrbit?feature=mhee

5:00  Now & There, Here & Then
Ray Charles ~ The Spirit Feel ~ (Opening song on my first show) ~ Jazz+ Blues (Rhino)
*Freeman Dre ~ Old Town ~ CD Release @ The Horseshoe, Thursday, 19 July, full moon

5:15 Ready, Amy, Fire
*Amy Campbell ~ Satellite / Interview / The Airport Song / Letters Home  @ Hugh’s Room, Tuesday, 24 July


5:30 Au Country – Air
Woody Guthrie ~ Talking Hard Luck Blues ( b. July 14 1912 )
*Buffy Ste-Marie ~ Suffer The Children @Yonge Dundas Square Wednesday, 18 July, 7:30,FREE
*Cowboy Junkies ~ Unanswered Letter ~ The Wilderness ~ @ The Great Hall tonight
*Sarah Burton ~ Outlaws / Tried Bein’ Good ~ Fire Breather @ Gate 403 Wednesday, 18 July

5:45  Spoken Premises
*Ronnie Hayward (performing as Ronnie Artur’s Orchestrio) ~ I Know @ The Local Saturday, 10:00
*Brian Dunn ~ In A Good Light ~ TVs & Radios @ The Garrison, Sunday, 15 July
Rick Estrin & The Nightcats  ~  Zonin’ ~ One Wrong Turn (Alligator)
*Alex Cuba ~ If You Give Me Your Love ~ @ Fort York Saturday FREE
*Shad  ~ Wild @ Fort York Saturday FREE

Diplo ~ Florida Mega-Mix ~ @ Fort York tonight
Shy’m ~ Et Alors! ~ Chameleon (Warner Music)
Skrillex ~ Breakin’ a Sweat ~ @ Fort York tonight
jj ~ High Summer  ~ High Summer (Stereogum)
*Cinderpop ~ Sevens ~ Manic Sparkles (Popoganda)
The Flaming Lips, feat. Tame Impala ~ Children Of The Moon ~ …and Heady Fwends ( Warner Bros.)

6:40 Healing Powers
Gretchen Parlato ~ Juju ~ The Lost And Found (ObliqSound)

6:45 Toronto Music Prehensile Listings over Carla Bley’s Healing Power (Fleur Carnivore)

Woody Guthrie ~ I Ain’t Got No Home (In This World Anymore)  1912-2012

Letters Home from Amy Campbell at 6:00 today

Five Years in Orbit: Cyclical, Circuitous and Revolutionary


 Corby's Orbit    has been held aloft for these past five years by the incandescent breath of Saidah Baba Talibah, the hyperbolic jollity of Steven Ambrose the companionable serendipity of Freeman Dre, the salubrious felicity of Cara Luft, the celestial metacognition of  Ozgu & Ozan Boz, the corrugated epicentricity of Alphabot, the sympatico syncopations of K.C. Roberts and the Live Revolution, the assertive epistomology of Quique Escamilla, the tectonic  sensibilities of Greg Lawson, the prototech insurgency of Tyrone (Power) MacLean-Wilson, the magnanimous ergonomics of Amil (Psyche) Delic,
and the Higgs-Bosonic connectivity of Erdine Hope. Mad salutes and Orbital props to all guests and supporters for inspiration, fuel injection and hyperspacial awarenesses!


The thought of "perhaps" radio occupying the blind spots of the "insistent" mandates of many Canadi-rontonian broadcasters has let me follow the arc of the musical spark that emanates (and GROWS) from the auricles and ventricles of the benevolent heart of the whole earth, known as Music. I hope to continue falling through space and time to the beat that is the pulse of shared wonderment. Your inspiration and influence as listeners will be always welcome and encouraging.


Sign by Stanley Marsh of Amarillo Texas
(look him up, he's a-mazing!)

                                                             A Few Highlights



Performances live on Corby’s Orbit


Style

Interviews live on Corby’s Orbit

Style

The Saigon Hookers
Kyrie Kristmanson
Suzie Vinnick
Aline Morales
The Heavyweights Brass
Band
M.J. Cyr

Rock
Alt. Folk
Blues
Samba
Marching
Band
Songwriter


Garth Hudson
Raul Rekow and Dennis Chambers

Carole Pope
Jon Finley
Danny Marks
Jason Crawford

of The Band
Santana’s Drummers
Legend
Soul
Blues
Subway
Guitarist

Alex Cuba
Nicholas DeBaere Sawchuk & James Flett
J.D. Souther
Doug Paisley
Justin Nozuka
Tanika Charles

SalsaRock
Metis Fiddle
Songwriter
Songwriter
Songwriter
Soul 

Elizabeth Shepherd
Sue Foley
Paul James & Gary Gray
Harlan Pepper
Rich Brown
David Braid
Ronnie Hayward

Jazz
Blues
Rock’n’Roll
Mod. Pop
Jazz
Jazz
Rockabilly


catl
K.C. Roberts and
           the Live Revolution
The Paint Movement
Jack Marks
The Abrams Brothers
Colleen Brown
Boxer The Horse
Clara Engel

Punk Blues
Funk
Prog. Pop
Songwriter
Bluegrass
Songwriter
Pop
Songwriter

Snatam Kaur
Rae Spoon
Saidah Baba Talibah
Steven Ambrose
Shakura Saidah
Jean Paul De Roover
Robert Priest
Rich Aucoin
David Bleakney

Sikh Chant
Folktronica
Funk Rock
R&B
Soul Blues
Melodicist
Poet
Shaman
Activist


Rose Cousins
Reza and Amir Manbachi
Jace Tracx and Van Dusen

Lindi Ortega

Ginger St. James


Songwriter
Sufi Chant
Hip Hop / Folk
Alt. Country
Jump Blues

Greg Lawson
Adrian “Sherriff” Miller
Rupert “Ojiji” Harvey
Bruno Capinan
Basketry
Carlos Malcolm 
Kiran Ahluwalia

Musicologist
Reggae/Ska
Reggae
Alt. Brazilian
Celt Punk
Composer
Singer /Composer

Joni NehRita
Ozgu Ozman and Ozan Boz

Wendell Ferguson

Freeman Dre & Fedora Upside Down

Soul Jazz
Turkish /Jazz /
Electro
Country / Comedy
Alt. Anarchy

Alicia Hansen
Orchid Ensemble

Jennifer Castle
Ron Hynes
John Leeson
Mike McKenna 



Experimental
Chinese
Classical
Alt. Country
Songwriter
Musicologist
 Rock Blues

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

The Unsayable





What is the deep listening? Sama is

a greeting from the secret ones inside

the heart, a letter. The branches of

your intelligence grow new leaves in

the wind of this listening. The body

reaches a peace. Rooster sound comes,

reminding you of your love for dawn.

The reed flute and the singer's lips:

the knack of how spirit breathes into

us becomes as simple and ordinary as

eating and drinking. The dead rise with

the pleasure of listening. If someone

can't hear a trumpet melody, sprinkle

dirt on his head and declare him dead.

Listen, and feel the beauty of your

separation, the unsayable absence.

There's a moon inside every human being.

Learn to be companions with it. Give

more of your life to this listening. as

brightness is to time, so you are to

the one who talks to the deep ear in

your chest. I should sell my tongue

and buy a thousand ears when that

one steps near and begins to speak.

If You Go Out In The Woods Today You're In For Some Flaming Lips

Monday, July 9, 2012

Here Comes the Sky : Corby’s Orbit ~ The First Show ~ 13 July, 2007 on CKLN.FM




1)     Ray Charles ~ The Spirit Feel ~  Blues + Jazz ~ Rhino 11:00  
2)     David Crosby / Neil Young ~ Music Is Love ~ If I Could Only Remember My Name     ~ Geffen / Atlantic 11:06   
3)     Sheila Chandra ~ In Essence ~ Nada Brahma ~ Narada World 11:09
4)        Stephen Kent ~ Lookout ~ Oil And Water ~ Family Tree 11:13  

5)     Vocal Baobab ~ Eleggua /Yoruba Dream ~ Arc 11:17   
6)     Steel Pulse ~ Chant A Psalm ~ True Democracy ~ Elektra 11:21   
7)     Tye Tribbett & G.A. ~ No Way ~ Wow Gospel # 1 ~ Zomba 11:26   
8)     Cat Stevens ~ Jesus And Buddha ~ Buddha And The Chocolate Box A&M 11:31   
9)     * Ron Sexsmith ~ God Loves Everyone ~ Cobblestone Runway ~ Linus / WB 11:34   
10) * Michael Cavan ~ In A Hundred Years ~ Michael Cavan 11:39   

11)  Bob Marley ~ Rainbow Country ~ Roots Rock Remix ~ Quango 11:43   
12) Brett Dennen ~ When You Feel It ~ So Much More ~ Dualtone 11:48   
13) Myron Butler & Levi ~ Set Me Free ~ Wow Gospel # 1 ~ Zomba 11:54   
14) Biff Rose ~ Children Of Light ~ Children Of Light ~ Polydor 12:00   
15) Sir Paul McCartney ~ That Was Me ~ Memory Almost Full ~ 12:05   

16)* Feist ~ I Feel It All ~ The Reminder ~ Arts & Crafts `12:16   
17) *The6ixty 8ights ~ And I Walk ~ Pica Electric Armada ~ 68's 12:21   
18) The Bongoes ~ Automatic Doors ~ Drums Along The Hudson ~ Cooking Vinyl 12:25   
19) Carina Round ~ Slow Motion ~ Weapons Of Mass Entertainment 12:30  
20) Hakim Bey ~ Poetic Terrorism ~ T.A.Z. ~ Axiom 12:35
21) Big Maybelle Ain't To Be Played With Complete Okeh Sessions Epic 12:41
22) Candye Kane When I Put The Blues On You / Jesus And Mohammed / Back With My ~ Guitarred And Feathered ~ Ruf  ~ 12:44   

23) Yvonne Hunter ~ Have You Ever Been Mistreated ~ There Is No Eye ~        
                                           Smithsonian Folkways 12:49
24) Lucinda Williams ~ Where Is My Love? ~ West ~ Lost Highway 1:00
25)* Sue Foley ~ Little Things New Used Car Justin Time 1:10   
26)* Justin Nozuka ~ Oh Momma Sampler Justin Nozuka 1:15  
27)* Crooked Still ~ Last Fair Deal's Gone Down Hop High True North 1:20
28)  Eric Friedlander ~ King Rig ~ Black Ice And Propane Skipstone 1:25   
29)* Slim Williams ~ Lyrisis (Drama Remix Single Phi) -Montreal 1:30  

    Toronto Entertainment Listings    
       
30) *Fred Eaglesmith ~ The Rains ~ Milly's Cafe` ~ Fred Eaglesmith 1:45   
31) Jimmy Dale Gilmore ~ Ripple ~ One Endless Night Rounder 1:50   
32) David Crosby ~ Laughing ~ If I Could Only Remember My Name ~ Geffen Atlantic