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Caravan

Friday, 1 August 2008

Just for no reason I spend the whole night searching YouTube for versions of Duke Ellington’s ”Caravan” Well, it was actually his trombone player Juan Tizol, who wrote the song. I didn’t know that, it was one of the things that I discovered today.
I ended up with enough ”Caravans” for a CD, but I doubt if I will listen to that CD more than once or twice.
Some of the best ”Caravans” that I heard tonight on YouTube were versions that I already knew: Brian Setzer (although this is a life version), The Black Albinos, The Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, etcetera. But there were quite a few surprises. More than a few actually! Here is a version by a duo called North Star that I quite liked:

The combination of drums, bass and voice is a beautiful one. There are some other sounds in this recording, but I am glad that they are barely audible.
Long time ago (mid-eighties probably) I heard a band on the radio of two brothers, playing drums and bass and both singing. I was blown away and forgot to write down the name of the band. If anyone has any idea who that might have been, please tell me. and i would definitely not mind getting a whole CD with music only made by a drummer and a bass player. But they do have to scream and shout a bit here and there.

Comments:

milan

2008-08-03 02:53:59

I have to say the original version, or at least the 30’s (?) version that’s to be found on many ellington compilations, is the most haunting, ghostly one I’ve ever heard. Spooky, exotic, adventurous, straight out of a Betty Boop cartoon. Unbelievable stuff.