Reading Is Funktamental - A Pod About Books About Music

• John McLaughlin & the Mahavishnu Orchestra with author Walter Kolosky

  In this month's episode of Reading Is Funktamental, we speak with Walter Kolosky, author of the new book Mahavishnu Memories. Kolosky's latest is his third book, charting the career of the remarkable jazz fusion guitarist, John McLaughlin. This book chronicles all the live concerts of the original iteration of McLaughlin's mighty Mahavishnu Orchestra. For more info, see the following interview conducted with the author at NYSMusic.com https://nysmusic.com/2025/05/10/interview-author-walter-kolosky-on-the-mahavishnu-orchestra/"Reading is Funktamental" is a monthly one-hour show about great books written about music and music-makers. In each episode, host Sal Cataldi speaks to the authors of some of the best reads about rock, jazz, punk, world, experimental music, and much more. Occasionally, the host is joined by notable musicians who have written about their careers. Recent guests have included eccentric British singer-songwriter Robyn Hitchcock, Roxy Music’s Phil Manzanera, Traffic co-founder Dave Mason, and Moon Zappa. Expect a great conversation and a playlist of great music to go with it.Sal Cataldi is a musician and writer based in Saugerties. He is best known for his work with his genre-leaping solo project, Spaghetti Eastern Music, and is also a member of the ambient guitar duo, Guitars A Go Go, the poetry and music duo, Vapor Vespers, the jazz ensemble Hari Karaoke Trio of Doom and the quartet, Spaceheater. His writing on music, books and film has been featured in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, PopMatters, Seattle Times, Huffington Post, Inside+Out Upstate NY, and NYSMusic.com, where he is the book reviewer.

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• Yoko Ono - Her Life & Art with Biographer David Shiff

  John Lennon once described Yoko Ono as the world’s most famous unknown artist. “Everybody knows her name, but no one knows what she does.” She has only been important to history insofar as she impacted Lennon. Throughout her life, Yoko has been a caricature, a curiosity, and, often, a villain—an inscrutable seductress, a manipulating con artist, and a caterwauling fraud. The Lennon/Beatles saga is one of the greatest stories ever told. Still, Yoko’s part has been missing—hidden in the Beatles’ formidable shadow, further obscured by flagrant misogyny and racism. This definitive biography of Yoko Ono’s life will change that. In this book, Yoko Ono takes center stage. This book was nearly a half-century in the making. In 1980, author David Sheff met Yoko and John when Sheff conducted an in-depth interview with them just months before John’s murder. In the aftermath of the killing, he and Yoko became close as she rebuilt her life, survived threats and betrayals, and went on to create groundbreaking art and music while campaigning for peace and other causes. Drawing on his experiences and interviews with her, her family, closest friends, collaborators, and many others, Sheff presents Yoko’s nine decades—one of the most unlikely and remarkable lives ever lived. Yoko is a harrowing, moving, propulsive, and vastly entertaining biography of a woman whose story has never been accurately told. The book not only rehabilitates Yoko Ono’s reputation but also elevates it to iconic status. Follow this link to read my review of the book for PopMatters.com https://www.popmatters.com/yoko-ono-david-sheff-biography Reading is Funktamental" is a monthly one-hour show about great books written about music and music-makers. In each episode, host Sal Cataldi speaks to the authors of some of the best reads about rock, jazz, punk, world, experimental music, and much more. From time to time, the host and authors will be joined by notable musicians, writers, and artists who are die-hard fans of the subject matter covered. Expect lively conversation and a playlist of great music to go with it. "Reading Is Funktamental" can be heard the second Wednesday of every month from 10 – 11 AM on Wave Farm: WGXC 90.7 FM and online at wavefarm.org. It can also be found as a podcast on Apple, Spotify and other platforms. Sal Cataldi is a musician and writer based in Saugerties. He is best known for his work with his genre-leaping solo project, Spaghetti Eastern Music, and is also a member of the ambient guitar duo, Guitars A Go Go, the poetry and music duo, Vapor Vespers, and the quartet, Spaceheater. His writing on music, books and film has been featured in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, PopMatters, Seattle Times, Huffington Post, Inside+Out Upstate NY, and NYSMusic.com, where he is the book reviewer.

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• The Rise & Fall & Rise of The Zombies with Robin Platts on Reading Is Funktamental

  Six decades after they stormed the British and American charts in 1964, The Zombies are possibly more popular than ever. Their biggest hits, ‘She’s Not There’, ‘Tell Her No’ and ‘Time of the Season’ have been played more than 14 million times on U.S. radio alone. Praised by critics, discovered by a new generation of fans, and inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, The Zombies returned in the 2000s to establish themselves as a top-class touring act still driven to create new music. Based largely on author Robin Platts’ interviews with the five original band members, Times and Seasons – The Rise and Fall and Rise of The Zombies (Hozac Books) tells the whole story from the mid-‘60s Decca Records hits and misses through the break-up, to the creation of their orch pop masterwork, Odessey and Oracle, to the solo years, and their unexpected revival in the 21st century. For more info, check out my review of the book published by PopMatters - https://www.popmatters.com/the-zombies-inhuman-staying-power "Reading is Funktamental" is a monthly one-hour show about great books written about music and music-makers. In each episode, host Sal Cataldi speaks to the authors of some of the best reads about rock, jazz, punk, world, experimental music, and much more. From time to time, the host and authors will be joined by notable musicians, writers, and artists who are die-hard fans of the subject matter covered. Expect lively conversation and a playlist of great music to go with it. "Reading Is Funktamental" can be heard the second Wednesday of every month from 10 – 11 AM on Wave Farm: WGXC 90.7 FM and online at wavefarm.org. It can also be found as a podcast on Apple, Spotify and other platforms. Sal Cataldi is a musician and writer based in Saugerties. He is best known for his work with his genre-leaping solo project, Spaghetti Eastern Music, and is also a member of the ambient guitar duo, Guitars A Go Go, the poetry and music duo, Vapor Vespers, and the quartet, Spaceheater. His writing on music, books and film has been featured in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, PopMatters, Seattle Times, Huffington Post, Inside+Out Upstate NY, and NYSMusic.com, where he is the book reviewer.

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• Legendary Producer Joe Boyd on World Music & London Music Scene in the '60s

  Guests: Joe Boyd, Record Producer & Author of And the Roots of Rhythm Remain Joe Boyd is a legend in music. He was the soundman when Dylan went electric at Newport, the founder of the legendary UFO club in London, and the producer of seminal works by Nick Drake, Pink Floyd, John Martyn, Fairport Convention, R.E.M., and many more. In the 1980s, Boyd pioneered global music through his label Hannibal Records, which brought the world everything from the greatest in Cuban music to Bulgarian throat singing and Afropop. Joe’s experience in the 1960s was profiled in his 2007 memoir, White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s. Now, Joe has created a comprehensive history of world music in his new book, And the Roots of Rhythm Remain. Boyd explores centuries of fascinating backstories to these sounds in this sweeping 900-page history, compiled from more than a decade of travel, research, interviews, and deep listening. He shows how personalities, events, and politics in places such as Havana, Lagos, Budapest, Kingston, and Rio are as colorful and momentous as anything in New Orleans, Harlem, Laurel Canyon, or Liverpool. Moreover, jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock 'n' roll would never have happened if it weren't for the notes and rhythms emanating from over the horizon. "Reading is Funktamental" is a monthly one-hour show about great books written about music and music-makers. In each episode, host Sal Cataldi speaks to the authors of some of the best reads about rock, jazz, punk, world, experimental music, and much more. From time to time, the host and authors will be joined by notable musicians, writers, and artists who are die-hard fans of the subject matter covered. Expect lively conversation and a playlist of great music to go with it. "Reading Is Funktamental" can be heard the second Wednesday of every month from 10 – 11 AM on Wave Farm: WGXC 90.7 FM and online at wavefarm.org. It can also be found as a podcast on Apple, Spotify and other platforms. Sal Cataldi is a musician and writer based in Saugerties. He is best known for his work with his genre-leaping solo project, Spaghetti Eastern Music, and is also a member of the ambient guitar duo, Guitars A Go Go, the poetry and music duo, Vapor Vespers, and the quartet, Spaceheater. His writing on music, books and film has been featured in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, PopMatters, Seattle Times, Huffington Post, Inside+Out Upstate NY, and NYSMusic.com, where he is the book reviewer.

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• The Life of Traffic's Chris Wood with author Dan Ropek

  Guests: Dan Ropek, Author of Tragic Magic: The Life of Traffic’s Chris WoodTraffic was the most enigmatic British band of their day. Formed in early 1967 by Chris Wood, Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi, and Dave Mason, they rejected the bright lights of London in favor of a run-down, supposedly haunted cottage in the country - a place to live communally and write music.With Chris especially intent on channeling the vibes of England's landscape into their sound, days would be spent getting high, exploring, playing, and working in varying proportions. Against all odds, this eccentric model paid off - songs such as "Dear Mr. Fantasy" and "John Barleycorn Must Die" would lift Traffic into the upper echelons of the rock world.As they brushed shoulders with Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, and the Grateful Dead, and with Dave dropping in and out of the band, Traffic's music evolved from a synthesis of Steve's innate musicality, Jim's atmospheric lyrics, and Chris's special brand of congenial mysticism. Record sales boomed, and tours carried them back and forth across the Atlantic. Everything seemed to be going to plan—a dreamlike fairy tale come true.But for Chris, a toll would be exacted. Amid the clashing egos, wearing road trips, stressful break ups, and a complex personal life, he vacillated precariously between bursts of exquisite creativity and torrents of self-destruction; a paradoxical dance which continued until he died in 1983. For a man who found artistic expression everything, and for whom suffering for it was an expectation, Chris would stare fully into Medusa's face of the music industry, paying a higher price than perhaps any of his contemporaries.Author Dan Ropek provides an in-depth look into Wood's life in his book Tragic Magic. Researched and written over ten years, it offers the only definitive account of Traffic's story and Chris Wood's quietly extraordinary life, something Dan shares here in a one-hour interview."Reading is Funktamental" is a monthly one-hour show about great books written about music and music-makers. In each episode, host Sal Cataldi speaks to the authors of some of the best reads about rock, jazz, punk, world, experimental music, and much more. From time to time, the host and authors will be joined by notable musicians, writers, and artists who are die-hard fans of the subject matter covered. Expect lively conversation and a playlist of great music to go with it. "Reading Is Funktamental" can be heard the second Wednesday of every month from 10 – 11 AM on Wave Farm: WGXC 90.7 FM and online at wavefarm.org. It can also be found as a podcast on Apple, Spotify and other platforms. Sal Cataldi is a musician and writer based in Saugerties. He is best known for his work with his genre-leaping solo project, Spaghetti Eastern Music, and is also a member of the ambient guitar duo, Guitars A Go Go, the poetry and music duo, Vapor Vespers, and the quartet, Spaceheater. His writing on music, books and film has been featured in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, PopMatters, Seattle Times, Huffington Post, Inside+Out Upstate NY, and NYSMusic.com, where he is the book reviewer.

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