Musicians often find music tricky to explain--how it affects their being, resonates in their brain and reverberates through the bones is no easy feat to articulate.
The "Invisible Jukebox" series, then, is a grand tradition of the great British glossy The WIRE, wherein one writer plays a series of records for a well-respected artist asking him or her to identify those records, as well as comment upon them.
Over the years, test subjects have been played everyone from soul-selling blues guitarist Robert Johnson to jazz heavyweight Miles Davis to, well, Andrew W.K.
And be it erudite cellist Julian Lloyd Weber, Malian multi-instrumentalist Ali Farke Touré or this month's U.K. noise maker and computer composer Russell Haswell listening, The WIRE's "Invisible Jukebox" is always a smashing read.
How would you, dear Classicalites, respond to a playlist generated by someone else? The late James Moody rebutted with one of our favorites:
"Is that Ornette Coleman? I can't dig that--turn it off. You know, I really don't want to make any comment on this at all. No comment, none. Just put that down: 'No comment,'" said Moody.
The "I'm in the Mood for Love" saxophonist may not have appreciated Coleman's harmolodics, but if such jabs and gripes at all pique your interest, then do make your way over to Christopher Thompson's [unofficial] "Invisible Juxebox" Tumblr. Thompson's posting every session, in chronological order, and he has faithfully re-created the very same playlists each artist was dealt.
You just might find a new addition for that shower you can't deal without in the morning.
Finally, don't forget that you-know-whom graces The WIRE 360 | February 2014 edition.
... Digital version going live now, print copies on their way. pic.twitter.com/XbhWkwvqnG
— The Wire Magazine (@thewiremagazine) January 15, 2014
