Ross // Making good use of the things that I find...
This is totally my era - I knew kids who had ZX-81s, BBC Model Bs, VIC-20s etc. It's pretty amazing how far computing has come in my lifetime. Check out what passed for "portable computing" back then.
The journey through my MP3 collection is almost halfway through and it's much harder than I thought it would be to select just one track for each letter. Take J for instance - there's quite a few artists I considered and it was a tough decision. In the end it was between Jurassic 5 and Jazz at the Pawnshop and even as I was writing this I was changing my mind every 30 seconds :-\
In the end I went with the first track off the first Jazz at the Pawnshop CD (a legendary recording amongst audiophiles), Limehouse Blues. I still love listening to it because of the live energy captured in the recording. It won't sound too special if you're listening to this on your laptop using crappy iPod earbuds, but play the CD on a real hifi and you'll find yourself transported to a crowded smoky basement club in Stockholm. The chatter coming from the tables and till ringing at the beginning is almost magical in its clarity. I also love the way the musicians try to, but don't quite end the tune several times, before coming together and finishing on a flourish. Brilliant stuff.
You'd be forgiven for not knowing the name, but chances are you'll recognise this when you hear it.
...the band is best known these days for its often-sampled cover of "Apache", an instrumental tune written by Jerry Lordan and originally made popular in the UK by The Shadows, and in North America by Jørgen Ingmann. The group's version of "Apache" (produced by Perry Botkin, Jr.) was not a hit upon release, and languished in relative obscurity until the late 1970s, when it was adopted by early hip-hop artists, including pioneering DJs Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash, for the uncommonly long percussion break in the middle of the song. Subsequently, many of the Incredible Bongo Band's other releases were sampled by hip-hop producers, and the "Apache" break remains a staple of many producers in drum and bass. The song received popular attention again in 2001 when it was featured in an ad for an Acura SUV."
For the full story of The Incredible Bongo Band, read All Rise for the National Anthem of Hip Hop on the NYT website.
