PFT Media

PFT Media

The home of the PFT Radio Network

The Major Scale – Weldon Irvine

By

PFT Media Podcast NetworkTo Be Young, Gifted, And Weldon Irvine
What do Nina Simone, A Tribe Called Quest, Freddie Hubbard, Mos Def, Richard “Groove” Holmes, Boogie Down Productions, Horace Silver, 4-Hero, Aretha Franklin, Talib Kweli, Stanley Turrentine, and Jay-Z all have in common?!

Continue Reading …

The Major Scale – St. Paul and The Broken Bones & Gilles Peterson w/ Hillary Donnell

By

PFT Media Podcast Network

The Major Scale hosted by Kyle Eagle featuring Gillies Peterson w/ Hillary Donnell & Paul and The Broken Bones.

St. Paul and the Broken Bones revive an energy that is desperate to break free in the 21st century. Their sound brings to mind the soul innovations of the Muscle Shoals rhythm section and Booker T. And the MG’s, but with the live energy of an Elvis or James Brown Revue. On their records they fire all cylinders, live they become a near religious experience with Paul Janeway’s stunning voice testifying from the pulpit. Janeway joins the Major Scale in conversation about the band’s album Young Sick Camellia, their sound, their family roots and, of course, that voice.
We welcome Hillary Donnell as a our guest contributor, one of the brightest talents in contemporary music journalism and DJ-ing. In this second half, she turns the mic around on another shining light of broadcasting and a true champion of music: the legendary Gilles Peterson of the BBC. They talk about his recording labels, live events, his countless showcasing of artists known and soon-to-be, and how the Winter Jazz Festival has helped to highlight Britain’s new trail blazers in jazz. It’s a movement that Rolling Stone has deemed “The Second British Invasion,” echoed by Vanity Fair, Esquire, and Newsweek.

The Major Scale – Delvon LaMarr Organ Trio & Brother Jack McDuff

By

PFT Media Podcast NetworkThe Hammond B-3 organ gets some big love in this episode. First up is the Delvon LaMarr Organ Trio and their debut album Close But No Cigar, a Billboard #1 in the jazz charts. The band takes the well honed sound and constructs an incredibly funky outing that comes off like a live mixtape. It harkens the spirit and quotes from the titans of B-3 like Booker T. and the MG’s, the Incredible Jimmy Smith, and Brother Jack McDuff.

Speaking of which, The Major Scale has been waxing on for a long time about the need to spread the word on Brother Jack McDuff’s overlooked spaced-out jams of the late ’60s and early ’70s. We take a look at a trio of albums he cut for Blue Note during this period: Moon Rappin’, To Seek A New Home, and Who Knows What Tomorrow’s Gonna Bring? Unlike his other work, these albums don’t turn up often on playlists, but when they do they dazzle and delight with their surreal soul and hard driving funk. Crate-diggers and producers have looked to these records since the dawn of hip-hop; just ask, J Dilla, Nas (who’s father plays on one of the albums) A Tribe Called Quest, or Black Moon.

The Major Scale – Cat Toren & Kyle Eastwood

By

PFT Media Podcast NetworkCat Toren hails from Vancouver, a positive wellspring of musical talent. She’s a distinctive voice in modern music, most well known as a lead performer of the Juno award winning band Pugs And Crows. Human Kind is her album, her band, her inspiration, and her greatest work to date. The music is a suite of deep feelings, pensive melody, hypnotic groove, and a sensitive yearning for hope. In this time of numerous contemporary musical landmarks, she is certainly staking her claim. The music seeks to respond to what can actually make America right again.

Kyle Eastwood comes from a family of music lovers, especially Jazz, but he’s the practitioner of it. For decades he’s been making solid and soulful bop, and in recent years Eastwood has really come into his own as a bandleader and composer. If the Adderley Brothers and Cleveland Eaton passed the baton, he grasped it firmly and then some. He joins in to talk about his 20 years of output and his most recent release, In Transit.Continue Reading …