Corby's Orbit

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

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Always Use Projection

Glen Hornblast in Roots Music Canada


With a name as obstreperous as Glen Hornblast’s, you could be forgiven for expecting to hear a scallywag songster, full of roar and bombast. Longtime fans of traditional open stage circuits, however, know Glen as a compassionate and insightful songwriter, whose intensity resides in his careful phrasing and delivery, and in his dedication to song and to other song makers in both Toronto and Nashville.
His years of attention to the currencies of composition and melody that these communities trade in have resulted in his first song collection, released earlier this year at Winterfolk X. It’s entitled Once In A Blue Moon. The superlatives that apply to this record are not of the sort that usually invite hyperbole. Restraint, understatement, clarity: these tools, essential to communication, are hard to market in a world of instant opinion and supersized media appetites.
Even so, Hornblast has found big-time support in one of the most positive record reviews I’ve ever seen, in August’s issue of No Depression.
Sustained humility inherits wonders. As he sings, Glen Hornblast wears his vulnerability on both sleeves, but a penetrating nasal quality keeps a ridge of earnestness that delivers like an a.m. deejay, afloat upon David Baxter’s meticulous instrumental production. Even in speaking, his voice carries with it a measured tone of insistent and curious consideration. “What was the name of that award I won again?”
An urban rustic, Hornblast finds miracles and laments in the city’s darker streets. and especially in the characters stuck there on the cement. “Loretta,” “Homeless,” and “Mary” hinge on the risks of living too close to hard surfaces. He travels, to Paris in “Le Pont Des Arts,”, and to “Isla Mujeres,” and finds a universal home for his open-hearted empathy.
Hornblast’s approach to love songs is positively reverent as he exalts his beloved in the torchy “Evangeline” and on “River”, in which he confesses that the subject of his simile just “carries me away”.
Glen continues to explore the landscape of poetics and to develop new relationships within the world as a troubadour of compassion, romance and fellowship. His quest for the ringing moments of life recalls W.S. Merwin’s famous koan:
I will take with me the emptiness of my hands
What you do not have you find everywhere.

Playlist for Corby’s Orbit show of Friday, 26 October, 2012


Host: Paul Corby
(brought to you by The Fabric, The Fashion and The Modern Old School) 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 at http://www.youtube.com/user/CorbysOrbit?feature=mhee


5:00  Mwee Hee Hee Heee…Nice Costume!
Divine Pocket Bouncers ~ Like Earth
Debo Band ~ Not Just A Song
Detroit Experiment ~ Space Odyssey ~ ”World Wide 3 by Gilles Peterson” @ The Great Hall Tonight
*Susana D’Amour ~ Say Again ~
The Almost Nobody Posse ~ The Monster Mash ~ 
Wishing A Ghoul-fleshy Fiftieth Birthday To… The "Monster Mash". The single reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on October 20 of 1962, just in time for Hallowe’en. It was a graveyard smash.




5:40  Memories Of Hours
*Jon Brooks ~ Visiting Day ~@ Toronto Songs, Trinity St. Paul’s, tomorrow.
*Maria Dunn ~ The Shareholder’s Reel ~ Piece By Piece
*Beneath The Ice feat. Emilyn Stam ~ The Salad Set ~ @ The Tranzac Saturday, 9:00 p.m.
*Jaffa Road ~ Ana El Nia (A Meditation on healing) ~ Where The Light Gets In @ Hugh’s Room Sunday, 28 Sept.

6:00  The Speed Of Music
*Sports ~ This Tree ~ Sports
*AFL ~ Perpetual War ~ Absofunkinlutely
Little Feat ~ Rag Mama Rag ~ Live At The Ramshead

*Hannah Georgas ~ Robotic ~ Arts & Crafts
* The Wilderness Of Manitoba ~ The First Snowfall ~ Island Of Echoes

6:20  Eminent Radiance
The David S.Ware String Ensemble ~ In Memoriam David S. Ware (1949-2012) ~ Weave II ~ Threads
The RH Factor ~ Poetry ”World Wide 3 by Gilles Peterson” @ The Great Hall Tonight
Johnny Osborne ~ Eternal Peace ~ Truths & Rights

 










6:30  Top Rankin
*The Rankin Family, feat. Raylene Rankin (1960 – 2012) ~ Lament Of The Irish Immigrant / Oich U Agus Hiurrab Eile
*Trent Severn ~ Bluenose On A Dime
*Ron Hawkins ~ Genevieve ~ @ The Horseshoe Thursday, 11 November w. The Do-Good Assassins
Kelly Joe Phelps ~ Hard Times They Never Go Away ~ Brother Sinner & The Whale
*Jesse Laine ~ Slave ~ Love Hierarchy
 
6:45  Ruminative Discourse Upon The Toronto Music Listings
The David S.Ware String Ensemble ~ Carousel Of Lightness
James Brown ~ Give It Up Or Turn It Loose (Fritta Sista Re- Formation)

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Sun Ra Arkestra and Coleman Lemieux Dance Finale in Regent Park Toronto

Playlist for show of Friday, 19 October, 2012




(brought to you by The Convergent Mary, Metaphysical Fitness & Alpaca Lips Now)

Guests: Jesse Laine, Edward Franko of Tryptych, Aaron Lightstone of Jaffa Roadand J.P.Mortier
5-7 p.m. online http://www.radioregent.com/ and at tunein.ca .  Canadians in Asterisk’d RED.


5:00  Risk Jockies
Loudon Wainwright III ~ Hard Day On The Planet ~ The BBC Sessions
*Lindi Ortega ~ Demons Don’t Get Me Down ~ New CD Cigarettes & Truckstops ~@The Sound Academy Saturday

*Jesse Laine  ~ Metaphysical Mama / Interview / Beautiful World (live) / Samsara (live) ~ Love Hierarchy New CD Release @ The Piston Wednesday, 24 October

5:30  Ephemeral Feminine Phenomena
Hildegard von Bingen ~ O Viridissima Virga / O Quam Mirabilis /  Interview with Edward Franko, Director of TrypTych, presenting Hildegard of Bingen & The Living Light, next Tuesday, 23 October @ Trinity Presbyterian Church
Iris Dement ~ I’ve Got That Old Time Religion In My Heart ~ @ Hugh’s Room Saturday & Sunday
*Cara Luft  ~  Only Love Can Save Me ~ New CD Darlingford

5:50  Ultimate Amulet
*Jaffa Road ~ On Your Way / Interview with Aaaron Lightstone / Taqsim Through The Mist / Through The Mist Of Your Eyes ~ Where The Light Gets In  New CD Releas@ Hugh’s Room Sunday, 28 October

6:15   Archetypography
*Aidan Knight ~ You Will See The Good In Everyone ~ New CD Small Reveal
*J.P. Mortier  ~ Broken Bottles  / Interview ~@ The Tranzac, Wednesday, 24 October

6:30  Freedom Forward
Robert Glasper ~ Black Radio ~ New CD Black Radio Recovered @ The Hoxton tonight
Ayinde’s Speech ~ Get On The Bus sdtrk.
Peter Tosh ~ Sinner Man ~ House of David New CD release and Tribute to Peter Tosh, Saturday @ The El Mocambo upstairs
Sun Ra ~ Over The Rainbow ~ Readings from the apocrypha of Toronto live music listings
Easy Star All-Stars feat. Matisyahu ~ Within You Without You ~ Easy Star’s Lonely Hearts Dub Band


Thursday, October 18, 2012

Cosmogasmic Connection Of Musical Matrices Tomorrow on The Orbital Perihelion


As the pyramids prepare to implode, Stonehenge emits a faint glow and the skies over Moscow light up with dense UFO traffic; the convergence of chantresses, initiates, bellweathers and Green Party candidates shackled to chairs perhaps indicate that a Great Convergence actually is imminent.


Ready with the soundtrack for that eventuality, tomorrow's show promises live post-apocalyptic balladry from the holo-prophetic Jesse Laine whose debut CD, LoveHierarchy erupts this week, an investigation by Tryptych director Edward Franko into the visionary luminescence of Hildegard von Bingen, 11th century polymath whose work is being presented in a one-woman concert & opera next week Tuesday, a conversation with J.P. Mortier, archangel of song, whose long-awaited return to the Tranzac on the heels of The Only Bar, signifies a transcendent reconciliation of cosmic dualisms, and a call from Jaffa Road's Aaron Lightstone, whose new disk, Where The Light Gets In, will be a lasting touchstone for a new age of Canadian beats, adversarial to mediocrity, reality deficits and trendoid exoticism.

Meanwhile, over Moscow last week....

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Playlist for show of Friday, 12 October, 2012




(brought to you by Black Rodeo, Spontaneous Turquoise, and Octobertude)
Guest: Michael Goldwasser of Easy Star All-Stars
5-7 p.m. online http://www.radioregent.com/ and at tunein.ca .  Canadians in Asterisk’d RED.


5:00  The Big Easy Stars
Easy Star All-Stars ~ Thriller / Beat It, feat. Michael Rose / Billie Jean, feat. Luciano / Interview w. Michael Goldwasser ~ Thrilla ~ @ Lee’s Palace tomorrow

5:30  Pianitude
Robert Glasper Experiment ~ Afro Blue, feat. Erykah Badu / The Consequences of Jealousy, feat. Meshell Ndegeocello / Letter To Hermione, feat. Bilal ~ Black Radio ~ @ The Hoxton, Friday 19 October
PÃ¥ve ~ Arktiskt Aventur ~ 7”

5:45  Spotlight on Shadows
Dee Dee Bridgewater ~ Miss Brown To You / Don’t Explain ~ Eleanora Fagan (To Billie With Love)
*Peter Appleyard feat. Elizabeth Shepherd ~ It’s Only A Paper Moon ~ Sophisticated Ladies E.S.@ The Royal Conservatory Theatre tonight

                (Illustration : Dark by KLINK)

6:00  Risky Disco
Patra, feat. Lyn Collins & The P-Funk Horns~ Think ~ 12”
Rednex ~ Old Pop In An Oak ~ Dan’s Phantom Dub Mix


6:15  Jealous Gravity
The Robert Cray Band ~ Right Next Door / Chicken In The Kitchen ~ Cookin’ In Mobile


 6:15 The Intensity Of Eternity
Spectrum Road ~ Where?
Branford Marsalis ~ The Face On The Barroom Floor / Endymion (with Toronto Musical Forecast spoken on top) @ Koerner Hall tonight

6:45  The Thrill Is Still
Easy Star All-Stars ~ Dub It / Close To Midnight @ Lee’s Palace tomorrow


   I'll share an interesting exasperating insight into this particular show with you, my   hardcore hitters. This Friday was so complex and challenging that I  left home with only a  single vinyl disk by Easy Star All-Stars. NO CD's!!!!! Forgot them!!!         Luckily, I had an appointment to pick up the Robert Glasper remix at Toronto Downtown Jazz headquarters, and  Anna Thom kindly gave me 6 extra disks to use. It resulted in an unusually narrow and American focus, enjoyable nonetheless.                                                                                       

 Next Week!! 


Monday, October 8, 2012

Today My Blog Reached 15,000 Hits!


 Hi I'm Corby, in Orbit online and welcome to my blog.
I was a local reggae bandleader and musician for 25 years, recording and touring the U.S. and Canada. Highlights were an ovation for Bloodfire at Reggae Sunsplash Jamaica in 1982, winning the first Black Music Award ever here in T.O. for Best Group, with Ernie Smith and Roots Revival, and New Years' Eve 1990 at Nathan Phillips Square with my last band, Boncongonistas. That year I began dj-ing professionally on Toronto Harbour boat cruises. I hosted successful youth dances in Scarborough for many years and became attuned to programming electro, cuddlepunk, hiphop, emo, nurock and all fresh styles as they emerged.
In 2001, I began filling in for jazz programmers on CKLN's weekday morning timeslots. Then I hosted shows for Denise Benson, Ian Danzig, and Denna Morgan, to name a few.




I moved from a fill-in programmer at CKLN.FM, Toronto's proudest cutting-wedge thorny issues radio station full of unique programmers, to my own show on the 13th of July, 2007. I was in a multi prograsmic time slot initiated by Bruce Tisdale's Cavalcade of Chaos show, and helmed, as All Over The Map, for another ten years by Steve Balla, and, frequently, by me.





When I came into the pilot seat permanently, I continued on this course with a more specific focus on live artist spotlight performances, the reggae scene, acts from local venues, soundtracks, interviews with promoters & afficionados, and documentary-style segments on ethno- or geo-centric styles in music. eg: Andalusia, Uruguay, Sufi, Zulu. I like to read peripheral information and inspiration to put a context to the music. Also, I'm told I look good on the radio.



At the outset of this decade, I decided to augment and corroborate my 30-month old radio show with a blog, which you see before you now. Videos, political reality, rants, playlists, endorsements, elegies, phantasms, pirated images, spiritual renovations and paeans began to fill up the cyber-clubhouse of my internet hospitality suite.

Today I reached 15,000 hits, which includes visits from the following nations:


Canada
4640
United States
3696
Russia
928
United Kingdom
926
Germany
913
France
244
Ukraine
235
Netherlands
232
Brazil
170
Denmark
157
I'm also happy to see visits from India, Australia, Argentina and  Mexico.
The work of the illuminati wannabes who necessitated the transfer of many CKLN personnel to Regent Park Focus Studios in 2011 hasn't hurt the popularity of the blog at all. Hits have doubled in the last year, perhaps because I am now assiduously posting playlists.

I continue to teach music, to perform with The Memberz and R.C.M.P. and to attend as many shows in Toronto and NYC as possible. I keep up with archival and current music writing. Consequently, I have many contacts in the local and international music communities, which have helped me to persevere with my presentations of interviews, live in-studio performances and pre-release music during my current tenure at Radio Regent.

As Eeyore intones: "Thanks fer noticin'".
Please become a "follower".
And tune me in.http://tunein.com/radio/Radio-Regent-s31265/
to listen up to Corby's Orbit, Fridays from 5:00 til 7:00 p.m. EST
And meanwhile, I will be seeing you in all the High Places.

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Playlist for show of Friday, 5 October, 2012



(brought to you by Who La Hoop, Looper Deluxe, & The Ring of the Neil B. Young)
Guest: Alex Cuba

5-7 p.m. online http://www.radioregent.com/ and at tunein.ca .  Canadians in Asterisk’d RED.

 
5:00 Solar Swing Set
Bob Marley & The Wailers ~ Lively Up Your Dub ~In Dub, Volume 1 (Tuff Gong)

Lee Fields ~ A Stone’s Throw Away @ The Opera House tonight

*Julian Fauth feat. Bharath Rajakumar ~ Just Keep Lovin’ Her ~ Blue Midnight, A Tribute to Little Walter @ Hugh’s Room tonight

The Easy Star All-Stars ~ Wanna Be Startin’ Something ~ Thrilla @ Lee’s Palace, Saturday, 13 October


5:20 Overt Efforts Are Underway
*Hotcha! ~ Mines Went Down @ (Winners ~ Best Folk or Roots) Independent Music Awards @   Phoenix Saturday, 6 October
*Sherry Ryan ~ All Night Train / Back Step Blues / Sister Of Mine @ The Dakota Saturday, w. Laura Repo 7:00-9:00
*Del Barber ~ Hen House Manifesto ~ Canadian Songbook @ The Rivoli Wednesday, 10 October
*Rattlesnake Choir ~ A Little Hard Work ~ Walkin’ The Wire
*Redgy Blackout ~ Lovely Day @ The Gladstone w. Christa Couture Thursday, 11 October












6:00 Adicional Impresionate
*Alex Cuba ~ Nadie Como Tu / Ruido En El Sistema / Suspiro En Falsete / Interview / Tu Nombre (live) @ Koerner Hall  9 November
*Daniela Nardi ~ Sotto Le Stella Del Jazz ~ @ Glenn Gould Studio 27 November










6:20  Obsessive Propulsive

*Ladyhawk ~ I’m A Witch ~ @ The Horseshoe Thursday, 25 October

D.J. Shadow ~ Right Thing ~ All Basses Covered @ Danforth Music Hall Saturday

The Mackrosoft ~ The Immortality Project ~ Antonio’s Giraffe

Lupe Fiasco ~ Put ‘Em Up ~ Lupe Fiasco’s Food & Liquor II - The Great American Rap Album

Los Van Van ~ Soy Todo ~ ¡Ay Dios, ampárame!


6:45  Preliminary Tastings of Toronto Musical Repasts Immediately and Extremely Available over Lee Konitz / Charlie Haden & Brad Mehldau’ s Round About Midnight

Superheavy, feat. Joss Stone ~  Mahiya  ~ The Soul Sessions Sound Academy Tues., 9 October

Bob Marley & The Wailers ~ Jammin’ Dub ~ In Dub, Volume 1 (Tuff Gong)






Thursday, October 4, 2012

Friday Fiesta with Heart Strummer Sherry Ryan at 5:30 and Alex Cuba Soul Rock Sensation at 6:00



SHERRY RYAN CD RELEASE!
SISTER OF MINE

Middle Cove Native nominated for
Female Artist of the Year & Country Artist of the Year
Sherry Ryan-Press Photo.jpg
THE DAKOTA TAVERN
SAT OCT 6, 7PM

Alex Cuba - "Static in the System" / "Ruido En El Sistema"
By Alex HudsonAlex Cuba's new album, Ruido En El Sistema, was released October 2 via Caracol/EMI. If you don't speak Spanish and were wondering what the title referred to, Cuba has just unveiled an English-language version of the title track called "Static in the System."

Aeolian Harp