yho5 - ... look sideways

The fifth issue of YHO had Jeanne Moreau on the cover in a still from Joseph Losey’s Eva.  It opens with a quote from Alec Guinness’ Journals which pokes fun lightly at the YHO way of working : “It is, I suppose, like a sort of sluggish river meandering hopefully towards the open sea but diverted by various eddies, pools or tangential tributaries.”

The contents of this edition of YHO included:

Ø  Pub rock and future primitives: The Motors, Hammersmith Gorillas, Third World War, etc.

Ø  Malcolm McLaren and Robin Millar in Paris

Ø  Jeanne Moreau, Serge Rezvani and Helena Noguerra

Ø  Morricone and Milva, Joan Baez and Sacco & Vanzetti

Ø  Factory jazz dance: Kalima, Swamp Children, Jazz Defektors, ACR

Ø  Sarah Vaughan’s Brazilian trilogy

Ø  Mark Murphy

Ø  Jazzman compilations and Letta Mbulu

Ø  Quincy Jones’ soundtracks

Ø  Moonshake

Ø  Cookie Crew

Ø  Ella Mae Morse and Johnny Mercer

Ø  Marcia Griffiths

This issue can be found here ...

yho4 - ... for dancers

The fourth edition of YHO had Michelle Mae Orr and Ian Svenonius dancing on the cover, and started with a quote about constructive loafing from Julian Barnes’ Metroland.  One nice by-product of this issue was a passage about Lotti Golden being used in her Wikipedia entry.

The contents of this edition of YHO included:

Ø  When punk mischief met disco populism: Orange Juice, Baccara, Scars, Odyssey, etc.

Ø  Daniel Vangarde and Jean Kluger – from Le Monde Fabuleux Des Yamasuki and Black Blood to Ottawan and the Gibson Brothers

Ø  Chas Jankel

Ø  Mo-Dettes

Ø  Dick O’Dell’s Y Records

Ø  Bob Shad’s Mainstream label – Alice Clark, Sarah Vaughan, Frank Foster, Afrique

Ø  Catherine Ribeiro

Ø  Saravah – Pierre Barouh, Jacques Higelin, Brigitte Fontaine and Areski

Ø  Georgia Anne Muldrow and the SomeOthaShips family

Ø  One-Handed Music – Ahu, Paul White, Bullion and abstract beats

Ø  Samia Farah

Ø  Fay Hallam

Ø  Chicca & Intrigo

This issue can be found here ...

yho3 - ... and then again

The front cover of the third edition of YHO had a still from the 1964 Jean Aurel film De L’Amour, and opened with a lovely John Buchan quote: “For those who worked in the shadows must know more than those in the daylight”.

There was very much a focus in this issue on people who were intent on putting together something more than simply a set of songs, people who liked working with ideas and themes, including:

Ø  Janelle Monáe and her Metropolis – The Chase Suite

Ø  The new wave of French conceptualists – Marc Collin, Olivier Libaux, Philippe Katerine

Ø  Nancy Harrow – from Atlantic jazz to conceptual interpretations of Willa Cather via Damon & Naomi

Ø  Gary McFarland – America The Beautiful and so on ...

Ø  Watertown – Frank Sinatra, Jake Holmes, Bob Gaudio and romance

The contents of this edition of YHO also included:

Ø  Johnny Hartman

Ø  Mark Perry

Ø  Slumber Party and Aliccia Berg Bollig

Ø  Tamba Trio

Ø  Phil Ochs

Ø  Cup of Tea – Bristol blues and roots

Ø  Muhsinah and Brittany Bosco – future soul sounds

This issue can be found here ...

yho2 - ... again

The cover of the second YHO was another still from Steve Barton’s Time For Action video.  The inside front cover has a shotl from a promo film for Cruelty by The Wolfhounds  The text above it sort of says it all:  “This is dedicated to all those who take the time and trouble to share their enthusiasms and obsessions, for whatever reason, for little return, yet in so doing enlighten and illuminate, making the world a better place, leading us to sounds and people we never dared dream exist.”

One nice and unexpected by-product of this early edition was a mention of Roger Eagle giving Jeff Barrett the idea of doing a commemorative mag on the great man.  This lovely document is still available via the Caught By The River site here.

The contents of this edition of YHO include:

Ø  Tuca – her records and her work with Franḉoise Hardy, Nara Leao etc.

Ø  Dennis Brown and Penny Reel

Ø  Mick Jones and B.A.D., Dennis Morris, Basement 5, Malicious Damage

Ø  Fiction Records – the Chris Parry sound

Ø  Andrew Hill and choral jazz

Ø  Nancy Wilson and Oliver Nelson

Ø  Jody Reynolds – the rockabilly provocateur, Bobbie Gentry, Nancy and Lee

Ø  The Fallen Leaves  - Rob Simmons on his return to music

Ø  Stacy Epps and The Awakening – abstract soul and spiritual jazz

Ø  Kate Wax and Shena Mackay

This issue can be found here ...

yho1 - ... your heart out

The cover of the very first YHO from November 2008 was a still from Steve Barton’s excellent promo video for Secret Affair’s Time For Action.  It sets the scene nicely for an essay on the 1979 mod revival.  This includes a couple of important passages:

“The last thing the mod revival could be called was an attempt at authentic recreation. That’s a given. Yet what is rarely understood is how it was not about channelling memory. Think of people like Jerry Dammers, Ian Curtis, Green Gartside, Julian Cope. They were using memory as a shaping force. Ska, Iggy, Robert Wyatt, the Seeds. They were also that bit older than most of the people who got into the mod thing.”

“There was something about the mod groups which was very oh I don’t know. It’s like when you were at school and you knew all the answers but couldn’t be bothered to keep putting your hand up and getting it right. Sometimes it was nice to just know. And not let on.”

The contents of this edition also include:

Ø  The future of pop – the sounds of Janelle Monáe, Georgia Anne Muldrow, etc.

Ø  Female jazz singers – the bleak, desolate, cerebral ...

Ø  Discovering bossa nova – from The Face to él and Loronix

Ø  Laurindo Almeida – with the MJQ/Joanie Sommers/Sammy Davis Jr.

Ø  The Fallen Leaves

Ø  Raw Records – the UK’s greatest punk label

Ø  Peter Coyle’s solo LPs, Marina Van Rooy and Liverpool’s Eight Productions

Ø  Charles Stepney, The Dells, Bacharach & David, Love ...

Ø  Alfie and Robert Wyatt, Bertrand Burgalat and Philippe Katerine.

This issue can be found here ...

Cumulative

Cumulative is the latest issue of Your Heart Out and it can be downloaded here as a PDF, free for all.  It is a specially prepared user's guide to YHO activity, giving a brief overview of what is in each issue and how to get your copy.  It's time to explore!  Preview, peruse, print it off, take it out, and pass it on.

Composition

Composition is the latest edition of Your Heart Out, and it can be downloaded here as a PDF free for all.  This issue takes as its starting point a sequence of LPs Janis Ian made in the mid-‘70s and their wider context and connections.  Musically this sequence frequently has the melodic invention and warm intimacy of the finest easy listening/adult contemporary sounds, but the songs never seem too smooth or self-absorbed, overly polished or plush.  There is a bit of an edge, an air of mischief, a suggestion of spikiness, a bit of bite.  She never gets too mystical, too ethereal, too wispy.  She is more earthy and argumentative than many of her contemporaries.  That may be part of the appeal.  In Janis’ case, it’s fascinating to look at her background, experiences, environment, influences, interests, attitude and approach.  It’s also revealing to look at her associates, the people she has worked with, by design or by accident, their connections, their significance.  So this issue flits back and forth through Janis’ career, and takes in a cast of characters including Shadow Morton, Brooks Arthur, Richard Davis and Charlie Calello.