Tag: Cuba

Bonnie “Prince” Billy (2019) – Teaser

Post author By vish
Post date February 2, 2025

In my most recent Kreative Kontrol newsletter, I mentioned that I’d done a long-form interview with Will Oldham about his 2019 album, I Made a Place, but it was only used for a print piece, not for this podcast because, at the time, he was feeling ambivalent about being on pods. Sometime in the last couple of years, I asked Will if I could share this phoner widely, and he said yes, so here it is finally, virtually unedited.

The conversation lasted about an hour and took place on Monday, September 29, 2019 at 11:00 AM ET, and you’ll hear us discussing topics like, me attempting to call him using the telephone app on my Macbook, as I often did at the time, but for some reason my computer perplexingly launched a program I’d never used before called Zoom, the return of Bonnie “Prince” Billy music after a long absence, the albums of songs he made written by the likes of the Everly Brothers, Merle Haggard, Susanna, and Mekons, wariness about oversaturated streaming culture, recording a Ramones song with David Berman (who’d died on August 7, just weeks before this conversation) and thoughts on DCB, Will’s love of Jake Xerxes Fussell, the Oldham family’s lengthy history with and a then-recent pilgrimage to Hawaii, and much more.

The wonderful new Bonnie “Prince” Billy album, The Purple Bird, is out now!

To hear this entire conversation, subscribe to Kreative Kontrol on Patreon at the $6 tier or higher (a reminder that an annual subscription includes a discount compared to a monthly one).

Related episodes/links:

Ep. #944: Bonnie “Prince” Billy
Bonnie “Prince” Billy (2006) – Teaser
Bonnie “Prince” Billy (February 2011)

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Ep. #278: Jane Bunnett

Post author By vish
Post date September 13, 2016

Jane Bunnett is a world-renowned jazz musician and composer who lives in Toronto, Ontario. A Juno award winner and Grammy award nominee, Bunnett is a highly accomplished saxophonist and piano player well known for her incorporation of Cuban music and collaborations with Cuban musicians; her 1991 album, Spirits of Havana, is considered one of the greatest jazz records ever. Her group, Jane Bunnett and Maqueque, release their new album, Oddara, is out October 14 via Linus Entertainment and will be touring throughout Canada and the U.S. between September and November. Bunnett will be appearing at the Guelph Jazz Festival on September 16, as part of Song Everlasting, an all-star tribute to the late pianist, Don Pullen. Jane and I met on the terrace of her Toronto home recently to discuss raccoons, spices, the evolution of a rooming house in Parkdale, where goes the neighbourhood, chains, the Gardiner Expressway, the stupid annual Toronto Air Show, Yours to Discover, attending five different Toronto high schools after attending a free school, painting and clarinet, street tough, music in the family and a new house with a piano, sister Sarah, the youngest kids don’t seem to matter as much, big brother’s music collection, piano lessons and bailing, too much playing and jazz, off she went to San Francisco, Charles Mingus, The Colonial Tavern, Don Pullen, improvisation and the flute, Toronto’s New School of Music and Howard Spring, “Nostalgia in Times Square,” snobby record store employees, Toronto’s underappreciated history as a jazz mecca, Claude Ranger, Mark Miller, ahistorical, a range of instruments, the social aspect of music, Mexico and Cuba, discovering greatness in Santiago de Cuba and Havana in 1982, the great percussionist Guillermo Barreto, her partner and collaborator Larry Cramer, the stories behind her all-female Cuban group Maqueque and their new album Oddara, David Virelles, the spirit and fiery energy of a little girl, NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts, remembering Don Pullen, In Dew Time, Ajay Heble, the esteemed ensemble playing this tribute, Howard Johnson and Saturday Night Live, the Maqueque song, “Dream,” and that was that.

Related links: janebunnett.com guelphjazzfestival.com vishkhanna.com

Listen, subscribe, rate/review on iTunes.

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Ep. #103: Culture Reject

Post author By vish
Post date May 27, 2014

Culture Reject is the moniker of Michael O’Connell, a talented singer, songwriter, and musician who calls Toronto home. After years in the Guelph band Black Cabbage, O’Connell eventually went solo and has released two full-length albums as Culture Reject, including last year’s Forces. He and his band are playing the Hillside Festival in Guelph this July 25-27 and a while ago, he invited me to his home for breakfast where we talked about Guelph, Black Cabbage, and the Neutron Stars, sitting down when you pee, rice and peas and coconut milk and spices and hard-boiled eggs and peaches, tropical music, how to reggae it up, Cuba, white guys with guitars, how Black Cabbage happened and compromising, Nick Craine, touring Canada by bus with an ambitious Aaron Riches, tinkering with Culture Reject’s first record, how the new record Forces was made at 6 Nassau St., Tristan O’Malley’s transient, permanently on-loan synthesizer that is never coming home, the mystery lodge, how Forces reflects Toronto, people need to talk to people, misusing “the theme,” communication and modern parenting, the written word is the written word, maybe texting is good for us, maybe phones are bad for us, White Whale Records, the importance of playing great shows, sketch.ca, the song “Quicksand,” and no mas.

Related links: culturereject.bandcamp.com vishkhanna.com

Listen, subscribe, rate/review on iTunes.

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Tags 6 Nassau St., Aaron Riches, Black Cabbage, Cuba, Culture Reject, Guelph, Hillside Festival, Michael O’Connell, Nick Craine, sketch.ca, the Neutron Stars, the written word, Toronto, Tristan O’Malley, White Whale Records