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Steven Bernstein's MTO
Popular Culture (Community Music Vol.4)

$20.00$80.00

Side A
1. I’m Gonna Leave You By Yourself
2. Black Peter
3. Flirtibird

Side B
1. Put It Right Here
2. Long, Long, Long
3. Duke Ellington’s Sound of Love

SKU RPF 2203 Categories ,

Description

“Where are you going to get original arrangements of the Grateful Dead, Eddie Harris, The Beatles, Bessie Smith, Ellington, and Charles Mingus, and not played as novelties but, like, this is our music?”  Bernstein asks.  Popular Culture, that’s where.  It’s what the Millennial Territory Orchestra (MTO) has done brilliantly for 20 years: playing Bernstein’s arrangements of the American Songbook, but reimagining that tradition in their own image.  “I’ve always been into the idea of popular culture: what do we all connect with?  What brings us together?” Bernstein adds.  “Also, I just like the music.”

It’s called Popular Culture and not Popular Music because these artists made music for the people, whether they moved a lot of units or not.  Eddie Harris, whose playful, wide-ranging crossover musical spirit just might be something of a role model for Bernstein, wasn’t often critically acclaimed, but he was the first jazz artist to receive a gold record.  The iconic Charles Mingus, on the other hand, never had a gold record but he recorded for major labels like Columbia and Atlantic, where he was label-mates with artists like Barbra Streisand and Aretha Franklin.  Then there are deep cuts like the Grateful Dead’s “Black Peter” and The Beatles’ “Long, Long, Long”: great songs that weren’t hits but are still known and loved by millions because they’re on best-selling albums.

 

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Format

'Community Music' 4-LP Series, 180-Gram Splatter Color Vinyl

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