Paul Heck, our feature guest on Music 101 this week, has been coercing artists into letting him use their music for the past 20 years.
He works with the Red Hot Organisation, which fights HIV/ AIDS by raising both money and public awareness through compilations and concerts.
His first project became one of the defining compilations of the early 1990s. No Alternative featured some of the biggest bands of the underground rock scene at the time, including Nirvana, Soundgarden, The Breeders and Sonic Youth. It also helped a relatively unknown Smashing Pumpkins connect with a larger audience, and encouraged Graeme Downes to pen one of my favourite songs by The Verlaines, Heavy 33.
In a recent interview, Paul told me that Graeme was the first musician he approached about the compilation. If it weren't for Graeme's positive response to what must have been an awkward question for fan-boy Paul to ask, the compilation might never have happened.
An MTV No Alternative special followed, with in-studio performances, an interview with a spritely Billy Corgan, and a back seat conversation between Boredoms' drummer Yoshimi P-We and Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon, where Kim asks whether Yoshimi's been influenced by any “girl musicians”.
“Yma Sumac” is her perfect reply.
No Alternative from Red Hot on Vimeo.
Looking for a suitably surreal clip of Yma from the Charlton Heston film Secret of The Incas (1954), I found out that Yma also lent her musical abilities to fight communicable disease - in her case, polio, for the March of Dimes charity.
There are nearly twenty compilations in the Red Hot series, featuring everything from country to club bangers, as well as albums centered around specific artists including George Gershwin, and Tom Jobim.
A personal highlight for me is Stolen Moments: Red Hot and Cool, which pairs hip hop artists with jazz greats.
The organisation is planning further compilations that celebrate musicians who, like Fela Kuti, lost their lives to HIV. Next in the series is the phenomenal Arthur Russell- cellist, song writer, and pivotal figure in the New York dance music scene of the 70s and 80s.
Paul tells me they've been trying to get a compilation of the work of Puerto Rican salcero Hector Lavoe off the ground for years, but as yet, are still trying.
More after 4pm on Music 101 this Saturday.
And, in case you missed it, I spent much of last week talking with musicians, writers and fans about the influence of the late Lou Reed.
David Kilgour of The Clean calls him “my Elvis”, Phil Gifford tells of a press conference that very nearly turned physical, and Shayne Carter makes a case for why Lou played the best guitar solo of all time.
Enjoy!
