desert island disk: Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet

[cdeupree@interagp.com (Caleb Deupree)]

This weekend I listened to Gavin Bryars masterpiece 'Jesus Blood Never
Failed Me Yet', which never fails to affect me emotionally.  It
occurred to me that, even though it's not the traditional looping
music (i.e., no live interaction or modification of the loop), it does
have a loop at its heart.

For those unfamiliar with the piece, it is built around a loop of a
tramp singing one verse of an old hymn, and Bryars adds several layers
of orchestral accompaniment.  The piece was first released on Brian
Eno's Obscure label twenty years ago, but for the CD release on Philip
Glass's Point Music, Bryars extended the piece with more flavors of
orchestra.  And as it turned out, Tom Waits was a big fan of the
piece, so Waits sings along with the tramp at the end.  Waits is in
top form, some of his best work ever.

Plus, how many orchestral looping pieces are there?