If you had to choose just one artist to listen to each day who would you choose for the letter A? Here are mine this past week:
Joan Armatrading: I do like female singer-songwriters. The advantages of this challenge immediately showed through. There is a lot of her catalogue I’ve never listened to and it’s good. The only artist in this first week I have seen live and we were both far from home – Northrop Auditorium in Minneapolis. I always thought she came from Birmingham but she was born in Saint Kitts and Nevis. An intensely private person with a BA in history.
Aswad: I also like a bit of reggae sometimes, but maybe a whole day of it is a bit much. I recall someone having an Aswad album in college and then forgot about them, only rediscovering them in later life. A London based group where their reggae has other influences in it such as R&B.
‘Cannonball’ Adderley: An American jazz saxophonist who died too young at 46. He covered a wide range of jazz genres some of which I like a lot more than others.
America: When people ask me what type of music I like then I invariably answer folk-rock. America was always one of my favorites, though I never caught them live. Maybe they didn’t leave America that often. I wonder if they have found a name for that horse yet?
Adwaith: By this stage in the week word was getting out about this challenge and the family were starting to chip in with suggestions. Adwaith are a Welsh indie-rock band from Carmarthen meaning ‘reaction’ in English. Good lively stuff.
Brian Auger: Jazz and rock pianist who used to play with Rod Stewart and Julie Driscoll (Wheels on Fire) and jammed with Clapton and Hendrix in his time. ‘Live at Bogies’ was my most played album this year according to Spotify. I haven’t seen him live but he has seen me perform. His uncle was Capt George Auger – The World’s Tallest Man, a subject of one of my talks. I first gave the talk during Covid by Zoom and Brian joined from his home in California. He’d only vaguely heard about George Auger previously and the family connection London born but still going strong in California at the age of 82. A charming man.
AnnenMayKantereit: Another good suggestion from the family. A German band singing in both German and English. My Spotify predicted age which this year was 82 will be falling like a stone at this rate.
And now for 7 beginning with B. Must get some classical music in here too.
Cardiff Capers 