Sunday at Bob's #49 - Ain't Nobody's Business, If I Don’t

Hello everyone and welcome back this sunday to spend once again a musical hour at Bob’s! I’m not gonna lie these days are strange, I don’t know if you can feel it. But you know we make it go, as my father says « jm3a koulchi ou goul 7amdoullah! ». I guess it is always important to be thankfull for what we have, straight after complaining for what we miss. You will notice today that not only do we have three different versions of the same song, but that this song gave its name to today’s playlist. It ain’t nobody’s business, what we do. On this note, let us begin.

We begin with the first take on the above mentioned song, by american self-thaught jazz pianist, vocalist, composer, and bandleader Jay McShann. Something that always amazes me is when people are able to learn how to play music by obervation, as Jay McShann alledgedly learned by watching his sister's piano lessons and trying to copy songs he was hearing on the radio. At age 15 (!) he was already performing professionally. I personally was taking piano lessons for years as a teenager and wasn't able to make this instrument sing, not even speak, let alone burp or fart. But it does remind me that as a kid I destroyed countless comic books by holding them agains the window, with a sheet of paper on top on which I would copy the drawings revealed by the sunlight. Still, what skills I had achieved with that method by the time I reached 15 years old could have never allowed me to make a living. Anyway, we can only witness and appreciate what people like Jay McShann built and left behind for us, comprehension is probably too much to ask.

We go on with a beautiful guitar piece by Duck Baker, which I found on a compilation by one of my idols Bert Jansch.The compilation is called Acoustic Routes (Music from the Television Documentary) and is a soundtrack to a 1992 documentary of the same name, as you might have guessed from the title if you are paying close attention. I haven't watched the documentary but am eager to now that I have listened to the soundtrack countless times.

Then we have two very cool Colombian songs to warm us up in this cold winter (at least here in Switzerland, I noticed we have visitors from allover the world–that or a lot of VPN users). The first one is from Baranquilla born Anibal Velasquez, also known by his well deserved nicknames El Mago (The Magician) and El Rey de la Guaracha (The King of the Guaracha). For a little over two minutes he will prevent us from getting cold by playing an extremely dancable song called Los Vecinos. After that comes one of the greatest finds from the previous weeks, namely the immense Aries Vigoth. A very good friend from Colombia came over for lunch recently and as I told her about The King of the Guaracha, she showed me some songs that reminded her of his music. One of them was Aries Vigoth's Predestinación. Oh my God, such power is contained in this song, it is like I don't understand the lyrics but I feel the pain. The words are sung in a rather fast pace underlying a sort of poetic urge to vomit what the heart carries. And I mean vomit as in the world of Art making, it can be a very positive word. The harp (is it a harp?) is following the speed and becoming a second voice, backing up each statement like a magical being following the poet in his adventures. But wait until you watch the clip, rudimentary at first sight although made out of very interesting compositions, to whom takes the time to observe. Each scene is presented to us at the manner of a moving painting and they sometimes fade in and out into each other. One scene caught my attention, where the singer is facing us reciting his powerfull poetry (powerfull in the sense of the intense urge to live driving an injured wild animal) while a couple is dancing in the horizon. It made me reflect on how sometimes when I spend days painting and doing not much else, I feel I am missing out on life itself and therefore painting something I am not sure I know much about. The singer singing to us describing something that is happening behind his back (literally of course, because we can assume the couple dancing is in fact him and his lost love) looked to me as illustrating that feeling. Who lives the life, who paints it, who sings it? I took many screenshots and will most likely use this clip in my painterly practice. However when I saw the song was counting over 12 millions views on YouTube I figured it might be one of these songs I am the only idiot who doesn't know about. And so I decided to put another cool one in today's playlist.

We continue with a bagnificent Brazilian song (we need one in each playlist don't we?) by Dona Edith Do Prato, Marinheiro Só. It is followed by another one of my great discoveries of the past weeks, Bana from Cape Verde, called the King of Morna, he was a singer and performer of the morna style, the plaintive, melodic lament which is a staple musical style of the country. I strongly recommend you dig more on him if you weren't familiar with his music. I stumbled upon him while looking back my old favourite abums from the giant Cesaria Evora to whom I won't make the insult of introducing.

We go on with the second version of today's theme song, this time by the great american blues singer Otis Spann. In fact this is the first version I know of this song. To be accurate the first one is from a live performance avaiable here. It used to be one of my favourite songs and I must have listened to it tousands of times in my teenagehood. I even think I have made drawings and paintings after stills from the video. There is something about the cigarette consuming on the piano while Otis Spann is delivering a painfully spot on performance of the song that cannot leave you indifferent.

We go on with a song from the Greek master Manolis Hiotis, here accompanied by the magnificent voice of Mariana Hatzopoulou. After that we enter a more contemporary area of music with Margate based Guinean musician Falle Nioke whose voice we heard two weeks ago on Pigeon's song War if I'm not mistaken. After him comes a very nice song by Finnish musician Jaakko Eino Kalevi who I was introduced to years ago in my early days in Amsterdam, at a time I would ask every person I'd meet to tell me names of musicians from their region. Then we have a song from Geneva based lorraine92 who once was my neighbour (I swear) from her latest release you can find here on Bandcamp and I highly recommend. Another friend comes after, Jason Daskalakis who we heard here before, and a song from his recently released new album. If you enjoyed his subtle guitar playing you will love the development he made including singing in his new compositions. Here is the link to his album.

We close this week's session with a very beautiful and deep song by Jan Garbarek, Charlie Haden and Egberto Gismonti from their album Folk Songs. And, of course, with our third version of Ain't Nobody's Business What I Do, this time by Davy Graham who I dont reckon I need to expand on since it is far from the first time we hear his voice in here.

That is all for today I hope you enjoyed as much as I did, I see you in two weeks and in the meantime, take care!
The check out time is 10h30, and it will remain as such until the end of times.

The receptionist

Playlist:

1. Jay McShann - 'Tain't Nobody's Biz'ness If I Do
2. Duck Baker - The Blood of the Lamb
3. Anibal Velasquez - Los Vecinos
4. Aries Vigoth - Yo Tambien Critico el Robo
5. Dona Edith Do Prato - Marinheiro Só
6. Bana - Consolo di nha Vida
7. Otis Spann - Ain’t Nobody’s Business
8. Manolis Hiotis, Mariana Hatzopoulou - Dakria
9. Falle Nioke - Love
10. Jaakko Eino Kalevi - Macho
11.  lorraine92 - Recreational
12. Jason Daskalakis - Just Playful
13. Jan Garbarek, Charlie Haden, Egberto Gismonti - Folk Song
14. Davy Graham - Ain't Nobody's Business What I Do

Sunday at Bob's #48 - La moitié d’une pomme, c’est bien de la pomme

 Hello everyone and welcome back for another fabulous hour on this sunday, at Bob's! I hope you are well, I myself am a wee bit sick due to the fact I tried to postponed as much as possible the activation of the heating in my apartment. I have been going swimming in the lake in an attempt to build an immunity against the cold and thus push a bit futher the moment I'd press the heating button. But I guess nature is stronger and when it gets cold you get sick. Regardless I stil have it in me to present you a new playlist full of cool vibes and discoveries. Let us begin.

The introducing song I found on a compilation about French jazz. A very diverse compilation which included musicians as varied as Claude Nougaro and Manut Katché or Oxmo Puccino. I thought it could be pleasant to begin with this very chill song from Marie Laforêt about Saint-Tropez, a place I've never been personally. She passed away in 2019 leaving behind her a discography composed of albums in Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and German (on top of the French speaking works). Inspiring.

After that comes a very exciting Japanese band. Apsaras is one of these bands where it seems there are more infos about in the YouTube comment section than anywhere else. To illustrate:

The first time I heard this group was on a vinyl called Atmospheras about 32 years ago, with the participation in the recording of Andreas Vollenweider, Osamu Kitajima, Oblique, Sky and Apsaras. Until today I find this complete vinyl of the Japanese group Apsaras. Thank you Steve Vokuchan.
Esteban Roseyó, 3 years ago

Thank You!!!! Owned this album in the 80's, loved it , lost it, couldn't remember the name...remained haunted by this first track but gave up hope of ever finding it or hearing it again.....was searching YT for 'Apsaras' by Alio Die....it was like meeting an old friend when I heard the first 2-notes!....beautiful - Thanks
Song Sabai, 4 years ago

(source)

We continue with a jazzy piece by the New York City band formed in 1997 Topaz, on an album called Listen! released in 2000. Again I will quote an anonymous internet superhero on a blog to share some info about the band, here wondering if  it is faire to classify Topaz as an acid-jazz band:

I'm a bit of a fan of the jazz band Topaz for awhile now. They're a very obscure band that not many people have heard of, so  I scoured the internet looking for info on them. Every site or information outlet I've come across lists them as being 'acid jazz', which if I'm familiar is a descriptor for jazz that mixes itself with club music, turntabalism, and other DJ-isms of electronic music. I've collected two of Topaz' most "popular" albums and listen to them both in full several times (Listen! (2000) and The Zone (2002)) and neither of them contain such a sound. Instead, to me, it's much more jazz-funk oriented, something you'd see from 1970's Donald Byrd or Herbie Hancock. I am aware that the band got more into the afro-dub scene the longer their career went on, but regardless I don't believe these two albums fit in the acid jazz category. (source)

After that comes one of the songs I've been listening to the most in the past two week (there is always on isn't there?). However I couldn't even find one other song from that band, if you know about No.1 De No.1 please enlighten me, ther must be more.

We go on with a very intense (in a cool-cycling-super-fast-down-a-city-center-at-sunset way) song by the trio Electro Bamako. The group is composed of Paul Sidibé, Marc Minelli et Damien Traïni, and proposes a surprising encounter between music from Mali and New York's electricity, to paraphrase their Faceboo page description. Idjo is followed by another song based on a similar principle but much more recent as the abum is not yet -or just has been- released as I write these words. I am refering to the UK band Pigeon and their song War, on their album called Yagana.

The two following songs I doubt I have to introduce, they are from artists we talked about here before and who are on top of that rather famous. Moebius with Das Ende from the-

-I'm sorry I was halfway through this article and couldn't go on, we are tuesday and I am getting back at it-

So we have the great Moebius with Das Ende, a song from the original motion picture soundtrack of  Blue Moon. And we have the immense Larry Heard with a song from his album Alien, which I would often play at the reception.

We go on with the Croatian classical guitar prodigy Ana Vidović and a piece from her album Gitara. I came accross her music while searching for interpretations of Bach at the guitar and I must say it was quite an amazing discovery. And we end with a song from French composer Joël Fajerman from his 1981 album L’Aventure des plantes and the song that gave its name to today's playlist La Moitié D'Une Pomme by Enzo Enzo.

Half of an apple, it is still apple. Half of a train, it looks like a train. But half the truth is already a lie.

That is it for this week, sorry for the delay I hope you enjoyed and I see you in two weeks!
Don't forget to check out before 10h30.

The receptionist

Playlist:

1. Marie Laforêt - Saint-Tropez Blues
2. Apsaras - Aruhi No Kaze
3. Topaz - The Emperor
4. No.1 De No.1 - Guajira Van
5. Electro Bamako - Idjo
6. Pigeon - War (Jam)
7. Moebius - Das Ende
8. Larry Hears - The Dance of Planet X
9. Ana Vidović - Varijacije Na Mozartovu Temu
10. Joël Fajerman - Rose des sables
11. Enzo Enzo - La Moitié D'Une Pomme

Sunday at Bob's #47 - Marcher toute la nuit

 Hello everyone and welcome back for yet another episode of Sunday at Bob's! I hope you and your loved ones are well, what a time we are living in. Anyway, this bi-weekly hour is also meant as an escape. My keyboard is still sick so please be indulgent if some letters are missing. Alright let's see what we have today.

Today we have two songs taken from a compilation that will be released this month. Amor En El Cielo by Beni Life, and Puente de Esperanza by Marengo. I haven't found much informations about these two songs so I will ust paste the description of the compiation given on bandcamp. An idea for christmas gift maybe? (10% of proceeds will be donated to National AIDS Trust UK in honour of Yves Uro's estate.)

The 21 track selection curated by Trujillo, a Venezuelan producer, DJ and record collector based in Berlin, explores the forgotten corners of the 1980s and early 90s Spanish music scene. Veering through early bleep and hip house, electro, boogie, Iberian pop and much more, it has broad appeal to both Balearic heads and diggers alike. Serendipitously, the cover art for the compilation is an original work by Yves Uro, a figurehead of Ibiza’s party scene from the 70s and 80s and whose visionary poster artwork became representative of the white isle. (source)

Then we have a song that carries away with an impressive easyness by the Lyon based calypso band Commandant Coustou. It is directly followed by a magnificent piece by a great musician who is, as were some of our last playlist as well, of Puerto Rican heritage and born in the US. Call me uncultured but I had no idea about this generation of musicians playing mostly South American rythms and songs while having a strong jazz background. I still don't now much but I get more and more excited as I discover this area of music that is new to me. Anyhow Parisian Thoroughfare by Ricardo Rey is one of the very cool songs I was introduced to recently and I cannot get enough.

We go on with Peter Walker, an American folk guitarist noted for dexterous instrumental pieces that reference the Indian classical and Spanish flamenco traditions. (source) who is a perfect musician to link our South American-ish chapter with the coming moroccan classics. Just a word on Peter Walker I would like to say is that while I doubt he classifies as a "primitive guitar" player like John Fahey who we heard here at least once (many times in the reception) I think it is interesting to build a bridge between the two and also adding Robbie Basho to the reflexion.

And then we enter fifteen minutes of a music that I reckon lies under my skin, I feel I cannot talk about it as my knowledge of it is rather physical, they are memories. I am not sure if I "like" or not these songs. If I have the impression I cannot understand music (which is one of the reasons I try to write about it once in a while) I think it is even more the case about music I have grown up with. I remember once showing a song from Renaud to a friend from Poland who immidiately classified it as "French country music" and she couldn't have been more right. However to me Renaud is Renaud. Jadwane is Jadwane. Pinhass Cohen is Pinhass Cohen and they are the smell of a burning hot car at full speed on the highway between Salé and Marrakesh, the thick smoke coming out of butchers restaurants by the road, the attempts to replicate the complex rythms on an empty bottle of Oulmès. Zine Li Atak Allah!

Then we have a song I received in a e-mail from a dear friend a few minutes before recording this playlist. I have no idea who Donovan is, Tangier is the first and only song I have heard from them but I find it interesting and I think it makes an interesting bridge out of Morocco.

Sarah Makem (18 October 1900 – 20 April 1983) a native of Keady, County Armagh, Northern Ireland, was a traditional Irish singer. (...) Sarah Makem would not consider herself a musician; however, she had an extensive musical career. She was a ballad singer who had over five hundred songs in memory. These songs she describes as life stories of murder and love and emigration songs. Makem recorded many of her songs, mostly for collection purposes^. One of those songs, "As I Roved Out" was used to open a BBC radio program featuring Irish folk music named after Makem's ballad. Makem did not intend to use this recording as such, and was very embarrassed to know her voice would be heard everyday across Ireland. (source)

Sometimes I think that what I am trying to do in painting is something that ressembles these acapella folk songs. I think I am rather far from it but working.

Oh and then we have such an exciting band! Lilly Drop, also a very recent discovery. Browsing through blogs mentionning them was very moving as there are a couple of comments mentionning how big of an impact the band had on their lifes eventhough they are almost forgotten (at least by their labels) nowadays. I strongly recommend the very floating Sur ma Mob that you can find on YouTube. And we close with a song I the same spirit called Launderette, it is by Vivien Goldman.

That is all for this Sunday, I hope you enoyed and I wish you magnificent two weeks!
Don't forget to check out before 10h30, I will never forget.

The receptionist

Playlist:

1. Beni Life - Amor En El Cielo
2. Marengo - Puente de Esperanza
3. Commandant Coustou - Cochon st.Antoine
4. Ricardo Ray - Parisian Thoroughfare
5. Peter Walker - Mellowtime
6. Jadwane - Moul Enniya Kairbe7 - Echafi3 Fina - Hezzit Yedi Lessma
7. Pinhass Cohen - Zine Li Atak Allah
8. Donovan - Tangier
9. Mrs Sarah Makem - The Factory Girl
10. Lili Drop - Paulo/T’oublier
11. Vivien Goldman - Launderette

Sunday at Bob's #46 - Superstar

 Hello everyone and welcome back for another hour of music with Sunday at Bob's. I hope you have been doing well. I have been doing great personnally however the keyboard issue I mentionned last time is still unfixed. Don't pay attention to the missing h, j, k, l or 5s, I will do my best with the virtual keyboard.

I usually try to limit the amount of fairly famous musicians in the playlist. Not that I don't enjoy their music but I started the blog as a way to archive music discovered by encounters and to take my turn sharing it. I also have to add that the understanding of who is a "famous" musician is very relative. I noticed that the only fact I moved from Amsterdam to Switzerland, with all the social changes that it implies, had a rather big impact on what I would pic for the playlists. For instance while in Amsterdam, I would be less conflicted by the idea of sharing relatively known French musicians such as Odezenne or MC Solaar, as I'd be confident they would be discoveries for most of my friends. Now that I am here, talking about these artists seem rather pointless. All that to say that in today's playlist, we will have a couple of superstars, hopefully futur superstars in the ears of some.

We begin with the legendary folk singer Sandy Denny, who I discovered through a special show dedicated to her career on NTS. I feel it had been some time we didn't hear good old folk songs here, and when I heard Sandy Denny's voice resonating in my atelier as I was beggining to paint I thought wow this goes in our next playlist no doubt. I think most people remember her group Fairport Convention rather than her solo career (?) but I'd personally put these BBC live sessions in a very reachable shelf and they would rarely get dusty.

Then we have a very beautiful Bossa Blues from the latest album by the brazilian pianist and singer Eliane Elias. It reminds me in a way of the Blues Maqams of  Anouar Brahem. It does not sound at all similar of course but in the statement through a title there is a common mindset, I think. The attempt to build bridges between genres that have more in common in depth than in surface. Something like that.

We go on with a magnificent song by Ángel "El Diferente" Canales. Born in Puerto Rico, he moved with his family to New York at the age of 8. He grew up in East Harlem. He acquired his nickname because of the way he distributes the structure of the choirs of his songs (generally, he uses two choirs with different lyrics in the montuno), his attitude on stage and because of the peculiar timbre of his voice. We have a good taste of it with his timeless hit Nostalgia.

Another hit song by a hit band of the Puerto Rican diaspora with the great Héctor Lavoe & Willie Colón. I highly recommend the song "Que Lio" as well, it has become my top 1 shower song and I now it by heart despite not speaking spanish at all. Special shout out at their album covers, very g.

Oh and then we have another song from this insanely rich musical area that it Brazil, with the very cool, very chill and very dancable Orlandivo. He is followed by a musician I've been wanting to feature here for a while, Tassos Chalkias from Epirus, and you now my love for Epirus music. A compilation of his work recently came out, it is called Divine Reeds, you can get it here and I very much suggest you do so.

The moment you fall in love with Epirote music, a new musical universe will open up to you! This ancient psychedelic folk with jazzy improvisations from the North West of Greece is unique and will touch your soul so deeply that epirotika aficionados always remember the place and the moment when they got to know this hypnotic and mesmerising music. (source)

We go back to Brazil with more superstars. No need to introduce Vinicius de Moraes, Toquinho or Maria Bethânia, I think if you've been folowing this blog for a while you most likely share my love for these monuments of music. Let us simply enjoy in amazement.

Another superstar comes after that, a jazz superstar I had the great honor to see live two summers ago in a magnificent park of Geneva. I had brought some friends along who did not get moved by the music of Ambrose Akinmusire more than that if I recall well. Which I can understand, it is not a super easy music to relate to. The song we have today is not amongst those however, I find it very smooth. You be the judge.

We carry on jazzly with a song from the Jazz is Dead series and before that a very cool love song from Jazzmeia Horn and Her Noble Force's latest album. I am in love with her use of the spoken word form. And on this song specifically it vehiculates so well the urge for detachment and careless mindset of a relationship's first sprouts. Her vibe reminds me a bit of Cécile McLorin Salvant, and that's something.

We close today's playlist with a bit of Polish jazz with a beautiful piece by Jerzy Milian.

Well I hope you enjoyed, I must say it was not easy with this annoying keyboard but I had fun. I can't wait to see you in two weeks.

In the meantime, take care and hand in your key before 10h30!

The receptionist

Playlist:

1. Sandy Denny - The Quiet Joy of Brotherhood
2. Eliane Elias - Blue Bossa
3. Ángel Canales - Nostalgia
4. Héctor Lavoe & Willie Colón - No Me den Candela
5. Orlandivo - Um Abraço No Bengil
6. Caetano Veloso - Eleanor Rigby
7. Tassos Chalkias - Dirminitsa (The Bride’s Dance)
8. Vinicius de Moraes/Toquinho/Maria Bethânia - Apelo (Live)
9. Ambrose Akinmusire - An Interlude (that get' more intense)
10. Jazzmeia Horn and Her Noble Force - Let Us (Take Our Time)
11. Adrian Younge, Ali Shaheed Muhammad - Apocalíptico feat. Azymuth
12. Jerzy Milian - Wśród pampasów

Sunday at Bob's #45 - 5hjkl

 Hello everyone and welcome bac for another musical hour this sunday at Bob's! This week unfortunately I won't be able to expand too much because I have lost a couple of letters on my keyboard. It makes it super annoying for me to write, I have a virtual keyboard on my screen for the letters hjkl and the number 5. So what I will do is I will copy-paste what others have written about the musicians we have here today. I hope you'll enoy regardless, here we go.

Gwakasonné is the ecstatic articulation of Robert Oumaou’s artistic and political vision, a unified expression of his interests in American jazz, pre-colonial rhythms, Guadeloupian independence, and Créole poetics. Over the course of three albums, all released in the 80s, Robert piloted a revolving cast of musicians, a venerable who’s-who of Point-a-Pitre avant-jazz pioneers, to deftly intone his creative communal concepts. (source)

From the heavier rock and psychedelic sounds of Rachid & Fethi, Les Djinns and Les Abranis to the haunting folk music of Kri Kri and Djamel Allem and the Film soundtrack moods of Ahmed Malek, 1970s Algerian Folk & Pop documents a key period in the modern musical renaissance of a nation in transition. Most of these tracks are from 45 rpm singles, the key format during the early 1970s before the cassette took over as the medium of choice. Western musical influences can be heard throughout this extremely diverse record yet there is an undeniable Algerian sense of sadness contained here within a more tolerant space in time between two of the country’s most significant historical periods; National Independence from France and the darker times of a brutal civil war yet to come. Compiled by Hicham Chadly. (source)

Spare and haunting, the music of Ali Bahia El Idrisi's native Morocco comes shining through on this tasty CD, along with much more. His arrangements incorporate traditional instruments like oud, ney, darbouka and shakers right alongside fretless bass and and sampled loops. The effect is rhythmic, haunting, and engaging, with passionate vocals. "Gelfou Alfou Hadami" gets its groove from bass and organ, sounding like chillout Rai or the Nubian groovitude of Ali Hassan Kuban. The title track is similarly chillin' - but by the time you reach "Dodovoiz" the electronica is turned up a notch for an enjoyable though far less organic result, one that sounds like jazzy ethnolounge as much as North African music. (source)

Baligh Hamdi (بليغ حمدى‎ 7 October 1931 – 17 September 1993) was an Egyptian composer who created hit songs for many prominent Arabic singers, especially during the 1960s and 1970s.  (...) Baligh Hamdi frequently said that he drew upon musical ideas and aesthetics in Egyptian folk melodies and rhythms in composing his songs. He also drew on ideas that were floating around in the contemporary music of his time. His sound has a classical flavor due to the heavy use of the string orchestra. But he also made some use of electronic keyboards and guitars in harmony with the strings, or alternating with the strings, in many songs. (source)

Rich in musical associations yet utterly singular in its voice, joyous with an inner tranquility, the music of Natural Information Society is unlike any other being made today. Their sixth album in eleven years for eremite records, descension (Out of Our Constrictions) is the first to be recorded live, featuring a set from London’s Cafe OTO with veteran English free-improv great Evan Parker, & the first to feature just one extended composition. The 75-minute performance, inspired by the galvanizing presence of Parker, is a sustained bacchanalia of collective ecstasy. You could call it their party album. (source)

This is a fascinating release from New York's late eighties East Side art scene, the last gasp before the gentrification.  Rebby Sharp plays and sings a strange mix of folk and bluegrass, throwing in conscious lyrics with a fried sense of humour.  She is ably supported by guests such as the Shimmy Disc head honch, Kramer, and underground legends, Fred Frith and Tom Cora.  There's a lovely cover version of The Holy Modal Rounders' Hesitation Blues. (source)

As a child, James Thomas earned his nickname by modeling Ford tractors out of the red “gumbo” clay found in the hills of Yazoo County. He later adopted the moniker as a blues performer playing the Mississippi Delta region. Thomas first learned guitar and sculpture from his uncle, and his art proved a valuable source of income, supplementing the wages he earned picking cotton and digging graves. In 1982 Thomas’s clay sculptures were featured in Black Folk Art in America, 1930–1980, organized by the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. (source)

Andrew "Andy" Brown (February 2, 1900 - August 1960) was an American jazz reedist. He played clarinet, bass saxophone, alto saxophone, and tenor saxophone, and is best known for his longtime association with Cab Calloway.

Early in the 1920s Brown worked in the bands of P.B. Langford and Wilson Robinson. He was a member of the house band at Harlem's Cotton Club starting in 1925. This group eventually came to be known as the Missourians  under bandleader Andrew Preer; by the end of the 1920s, Cab Calloway had taken leadership of it. Brown played in Calloway's band until 1945, including on many recording sessions and a tour of Europe in 1934. He appeared alongside Calloway as a performer in sound films including Hi-De-Ho (1937), Blues in the Night (1942), and Minnie the Moocher (1942). In the late 1940s Brown ran a music education studio in New York. (source)

D' Boys (pronounced as The Boys) was a Yugoslav synthpop/pop rock band from Belgrade.

The band was formed in 1982, consisting of two musicians: Peđa D'Boy (real name Predrag Jovanović, vocals, guitar) and Miško Mihajlovski, who reportedly "played the drum machine" and percussion. Jovanović was previously a vocalist for Lutalice, performed in cafes in France, spent some time on Goa beaches performing with jazz and rock musicians from all over the world, and was a vocalist for the German progressive/krautrock band Jane, with which he recorded their 1980 self-titled album. Mihajlovski was previously a member of the new wave/art rock band Kozmetika, and was one of the artists involved in the Izgled pop culture magazine. (source)

That's is for this week, I will see you next week with enough letters on my keboard to write something interesting!

In the meantime don't forget to check out at 10h30 maximum, and have a beautiful sunday,
The receptionist

Playlist:

1. Gwakassonné - Algérie 62
2. Les djinns - Nesthel
3. Bahia El Idrissi - Atahaddi
4. Baligh Hamdi - Sahara/Love Story
5. Natural Information Society - Descension (Out of Our Constrictions) I
6. Rebby Sharp - Just in Time
7. James « Son Ford » Thomas - 44 Blues
8. Alex Wiliams - The Thrill Ain’t Gone
9. Andrew Brown - You Made Me Suffer
10. D’BOYS - Sneana

Sunday at Bob's #44 - Bacchanalia

 Hello everyone, welcome back after a loooong break! I hope you and your loved ones have been doing good, enjoyed a beautiful sumer and stayed healthy. So many things have happened in the past months I can't even begin to tell you. Surely it is the case for you too. I mentionned in the last posts that I was living an wifi-less life, this is all over now. For various reasons (main one being that we live in an age where every effort is put into keeping us connected) I had to install that evil stuff in my appartement again. One of the good things about that is that I went back to browsing blogs and discovering new music rather than browsing my old hard drives. Another good thing that happened recently led to the fact I most likely will have more time in the coming year to share music here, so I will do my best to keep the reception up to date. Alright now let's see if I haven't forgotten how this works. Sit back, turn the volume up, press play and enjoy.

We begin with a beautiful acappella song by The Singers Unlimited. Michelle is a song I tracked down after listening to a recent rap album the other day. A very beautiful thing with rap is that the sample selections are always leading you to super interesting music. I think I mentioned a few years back the possibility of making a playlist only with songs sampled by rappers. I love you, I love you, I looooove you. What a pleasant song isn't it?

We go on with the singer I have been listening to the most in the past months. Cheb is a Moroccan musician from the region that produces Morocco's finest (and only?) sprakling water, Oulmès. On a personal level I am always attracted to songs when I can understand some words, sentences from a language I don't master. I think that was my first appeal to Cheb's music. But it turned out to be so much more than that. There is a deep understanding, respect and reappropriation of Moroccan' musical culture in his songs. Whether it be from the berber music with influences such as the great Mohamed Rouicha, who we listened to here some time ago, or popular music like Najat Aatabou for instance. So for me it is really a revival of the soundtrack to my childhood breakfasts before going to school. In a saucer my father used to put olive oil and a tea spoon of honey, we would then break bread and dip it in, all that with Maghni singing his best songs in the background. I am not gonna go into his lyrics which I gather are a big part of his success and worth being studied, mainly because I don't understand them enough. I will just say they are sung in true Moroccan dialect, which is always a pleasure for me. I also wanted to add that such posture towards artists of the past is I think something that deserves attention. While Cheb is creating something new (he uses hashtags such as #NEOCHAABI or #POSTCHAABI on his Instagram) he is not dismissing at all Moroccan's popular heritage, quite the opposite. It is a posture I am actively trying to incorporate in my personal art practice. Ket diri lhar, yak al har fabor?

With the next song I wanted to make a shout out to the begginings of this blog. Brazilian guests at Bob's were probably the most musically enriching individuals I've met in my life. They were definitely a trigger for this initiative. We've had many discussions and they have showed me so much from this huge musical continent that is Brazil. I recently acquired a live album by Geraldo Vandré, but I don't know much about him. It begins with a song that sounds like it has political resonance, the kind of resonance typical from the late 60s. But I won't adventure myself into statements about a period and place I know nothing about. He is amongst those brazilian musicians who were forced to exile by the dictatorship in place since 1964. Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil went to London (where they made musical discoveries that had an interesting influence on them, this can be heard very well on Veloso's 1972 album Transa recorded in London, for instance) Gilberto Vandré went to Chile and then to France. Anyway Se a Tristeza Chegar is amongst those songs that taste like honey to our ears and it gives me chills everytime I listen to it.

After that we have a song by Onça Combo, a group I discovered in one of my bandcamp journeys. It is difficult to gather more informations about it than the sober description on their bandcamp page given the fact I do not speak brazilian. 

A folk jazz trio from Brazil exploring northeastern brazilian traditions, spiritual jazz, minimalism and free improvisation. Active since 2015 in Brazil and Belgium. (source)

We go on with the immense Barış Manço and the Kurtalan Ekspres, who we have here for the second time at least so I won't expand too much on them except to say it is always a thrill to listen to.

Then we have the great Cheb Zergui with a song featured in a very cool compilation of Algerian raï of the early 1970s. In other words a type of raï we are not accustomed to in the western world. Most of us know about Khaled, Cheb Mami, 123 Soleil etc. But who knows the early Cheb Khaled? The sexy trumpets of Wahrane surrounding tragic love songs? Anyway here is the link to it, it is called 1970's Algerian Proto-Rai Underground.

After that the great (understatement) multi-disciplinary artist Lonnie Holley invites us to reflect through a beautiful composition on a crucial question. How far is spaced out? Lonnie Holley is one of these artists that forces respect. It is through such art practice we realise how strong is the urge to build things is in most of us. Do we think too much? Holley was born in the 1950s Jim Crow era, south of the United States. He claims to have been traded at age 4 for a bottle of whiskey. These are the kinds of life paths we cannot even begin to fathom. I won't expand too much on his life but it seems interesting to me to link it with this urge to make things that I mentioned before. This urge is bigger than school, bigger than universities, bigger than museums and galleries. Not much can stop it and the examples we have of attempts to contain it have always turned out unsuccessful and temporary. We talked a bit about Brazil before, abour Greece some time ago. Let us keep that in mind.

SAT by Boban Markovic is a tribute to years of my life that are behind me. It is with nostalgia that I look back, with a smile that I dance with Boban. Kostas Pitsos and Christos Papadopoulos' Syrtos and Kenny Burrell's Soul Lament are other tributes to that life. I used to close my shifts on Kenny Burrell. Then we have two beautiful songs, one by Matt Elliott and the other by Michio Miyagi. And we close this episode with the oldest surviving complete musical score, the Epitaph of Seikilos, performed by Michael Levy.

Ὅσον ζῇς φαίνου
μηδὲν ὅλως σὺ λυποῦ
πρὸς ὀλίγον ἔστι τὸ ζῆν
τὸ τέλος ὁ χρόνος ἀπαιτεῖ.

While you live, shine
have no grief at all
life exists only for a short while
and Time demands his due.

I wish you all a great sunday, and I see you very soon!
Check out time is 10h30. Please return your keys before that.

The receptionist

Playlist: 

1. The Singers Unlimited - Michelle
2. Cheb - في إنتظار السندويش
3. Geraldo Vandré - Se a Tristeza Chegar
4. Charles Aznavour - Qui
5. Onça Combo, Thomas Rohrer, Julian Sanchez - O Autoproclamado Campeão
6. Barış Manço & Kurtalan Ekspres - Ham Meyvayı Kopardılar Dalından
7. Cheb Zergui - Ana dellali (I Cuddle Myself)
8. Lonnie Holley - How Far Is Spaced Out?
9. Boban Markovic - SAT
10. Kostas Pitsos/Christos Papadopoulos - Syrtos
11. Kenny Burrell - Soul Lament
12. Matt Elliott - What’s Wrong
13. Michio Miyagi - Variations on Sakura
14. Michael Levy - Epitaph of Seikilos (Complete Ancient Greek Melody Composed by Seikilos, Son of Euterpe, 1st Century CE - Arranged For Replica Lyr)

Sunday at Bob's #43 - Les racines au bistrot

 Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of your faithful almost-bi-weekly musical hour, Sunday at Bob's. I hope you are well. These days are great, very productive, much fertile and somehow it has affected my thirst for new music. I have been going back a lot, journeys in old usb sticks, in browser's history and favourited youtube links. An event in my life led me to re-discover a world I had put aside for a couple of years, French rap. You will have a little taste of that today, but not only, far from it. I did make pleasant discoveries too, often in fields we are not accustomed to have here (maybe we will at some point?), but we are here to learn, at least I am. Anyhow here is our latest playlist, it goes in various directions but I hope it will be of good companion to your sunday.

 

We begin with a song that a very dear friend showed me last year. It somehow manages to depict with great accuracy periods of my life my memory fantasised, through several lyrical tricks and personal references, while at the same time describing a very specific period in which I didn't exist in a specific place I have never been. Bernard Dimey sings the nightlife of Paris in the 1950s and 1960s. And he makes you feel like you were there. It is probably helped by the way his songs are recorded, it feels as if the recordings take place in the very room mentioned in the poems being recited. As if he sings about the Lux bar, inside the Lux bar and the accordeon you hear belongs more to the background music of the bar than to the instrumental of the song he sings. It is a very beautiful way to merge poetr and music, almost as if the music is the poem's frame, or pedestal.

We go on with a Franch rap band who I like to consider as heir of universes such as Dimey's, at least on their album Sans Chantilly, they later on pursued their career towards something different with which I have less connections but I do respect (I should be less categoric as today's track is taken from their album OVNI which came right after Sans Chantilly). This band is called Odezenne and I used to be a big fan. I discovered Dave Brubeck, Seul contre tous and more gems through their first album and am forever grateful. Here is a little bonus, a video of them spitting fire surrounded by the hottest freestylers of the early 2010s.

Then we have a song by the great Suzanne Kraft, on a magnificent duo album with Amsterdam based multi-instrumentalist Jonny Nash. It has been a while since I have the project of making a series of playlist which would consist of songs picked by painters based on what they listen to while painting. I have been harrassing a couple of friends whose work I love and who I know it would be very interesting to hear from, but so far it hasn't been fruitful. Howeve, if I had to make one myself, Suzanne Kraft would most definitely be on it.

We go on with a musician I sumbled upon thanks to W. Kandinsky's On the spiritual in art, Modest Mussorgsky, here interpreted by the great Brigitte Engerer. 

Pictures at an Exhibition (...) is a suite of ten pieces (plus a recurring, varied Promenade) composed for piano by Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky in 1874. The suite is Mussorgsky's most-famous piano composition, and has become a showpiece for virtuoso pianists. It has become further known through various orchestrations and arrangements produced by other musicians and composers, with Maurice Ravel's 1922 version for full symphony orchestra being by far the most recorded and performed. (...) The composition is based on pictures by the artist, architect, and designer Viktor Hartmann. (source)

 

It is followed by a very cool recording of a Kulning (herding call). It is a kind of singing from certain parts of Norway and Sweden used to call back herds of cows, goats etc. from mountain pastures after a day of grazing. As I understand, different songs call different type of herds. It dates back to medieval times. I find them very beautiful, it reminds me of these whistled languages from islands around Spain I believe.

When a call is made in a valley, it rings and echoes against the mountains. The animals, a number of whom wear bells tuned so that the livestock's location can be heard, begin to respond to the call, answering back and the sound of the bells indicates that they are moving down the mountain towards their home farm. The kulokks can belong to an individual, but are sometimes family-based and are handed down so that a family's cows know they are being called and thus respond. A number of calls contain names of individual (sometimes the "lead") animals, as herds are not very large. (source)

 

Then we have a beautiful guitar piece by Robbie Basho who I find interesting for his Indian influences. He is followed by the great Galcher Lustwerk, one of my favourite contemporary musicians, the song we have today is slightly off in his discography but in a very cool and smart way. 

 

After that we enter a more festive part of our playlist with Kenny Dope and his remix of Bobby Hutcherson's La Malanga from the classic compilation Blue Note Revisited. It continues with the very peculiar associtation between Israeli band Sababa 5 whose music reminds us of Aris San who we are already familiar with, and the Japanese singer (bellydancer/derbuka player?) Yurika.

 

Amabano was a group of ten musicians hailing from Burundi and Congo. Active from the late ‘70s to the early ‘90s, they were the most popular and influential band in Burundi to date. Their innovative blend of styles, musical craftsmanship, and vision of a unified Burundi are still remembered today. In 1987 they released their only international album in the Soviet Union in limited numbers. (source) 

 

Also about Amabano, here is an interesting article.

We go on with Ethiopian legend Gétatchéw Mèkurya who has been played at Bob's many times and always brought light to this dark lobby. We have talked about Ethiopian music here many times and for now I don't have much to add except that it is always a great pleasure to hear it.

Then we have another star band from Batov Records (so were Sababa 5 & Yurika) El Khat. It is a band from Tel Aviv, all with different backgrounds – Iraq, Poland, Morocco, and Yemen. After them comes a jazz song from a band I know nothing about, but I found their album on one of my usb sticks and I really liked it. They are called Sitka Sun and their album is called All the Way West, I really recomend it. Then we have Mexican jazz legend Tino Contreras with a composition taken from his latest album La noche de los dioses. We end on a dancing note with a song from a fantastic compilation released recently on Analog Africa: Space Echo - The Mystery Behind the Cosmic Sound of Cabo Verde Finally Revealed!  

 

That's it for today I hope you enjoyed as much as I did, and I will see you in two weeks hopefully! In the meantime take care of yourself and your loved ones, much love.

Check out time is 10h30, beware.

The receptionist

Playlist:

1. Bernard Dimey - Au lux bar
2. Odezenne - Taxi
3. Jonny Nash & Suzanne Kraft - Inside
4. Brigitte Engerer - Pictures at an Exhibition: II. The old castle
5. Marta Myhr - Get och fårlock
6. Robbie Basho - Khatum (Instrumental)
7. Galcher Lustwerk - Thermonics
8. Kenny Dope - La Malanga
9. Sababa 5 & Yurika - Nasnusa
10. Amabano - Nteramajane
11. Gétatchéw Mèkurya - Shellela
12. El Khat - Balagh Al Achbaab
13. Sitka Sun - Dauntless
14. Tino Contreras - Malinche
15. Fany Havest - That Day

Sunday at Bob's #42 - A Wall, or a Window

 Hello everyone and welcome back for another hour or so with Sunday at Bob's. I hope you are doing well. The other day I was walking in the countryside and I remembered something I had come up with to explain some paintings to a curator at an exhibition. I told him I thought paintings were either walls or windows, he asked me to elaborate which I was uncapable of doing. Anyway I was thinking about that and I grew more convinced of it being true, while remaining unable to expand. Here is today's playlist.

 

 We begin with Khaled Kurbeh & Raman Khalaf Ensemble, for the second time on this blog. The first time we heard them was I believe a song taken from the same album as today, Aphorism, which I find very interesting. It is not that long and so I had taken the habit of playing it as I was beggining a shift at the reception, until the day a colleague guessed I was gonna play it before I even did. I thought it was unacceptable to be so predictable and I never played it again, at least not as a shift's intro.

We go on with a treasure of an album I stumbled upon over a month ago and cannot stop listening to. The use of electronic music on it is so well done and manages to add something while keeping the whole spirit of the album intact. If you have been a Sunday at Bob's reader for a while, you know how fascinated I am by patterns, loops, and trance. I think The Scorpios' album is a very smart and unique mélange of musics that all have something to do with those themes.

 

The Scorpios are a band originally form Sudan that melds Arabic rhythms and guitar chops (and a kind of swooning cyclical ecstasy) with a raw Eastern funk feel, properly dismantling cultural barriers in pursuit of a unifying rhythmic bliss. Heavy bass, synths, horns and percussions drive through traditional Sudanese forms to create a sound that owes as much to Detroit as it does to Khartoum. (source)

We go on with a song that doesn't need any introduction since it is probably the third time we listent to it here, after Aris San's tribute and was it Ibrahim Maalouf? I don't remember exactly but regardless, we could make an entire playlist of tributes to the immense Oum Khaltoum's Anta Omri. Today we have Egyptian guitar payer Omar Khorshid, who actually played with Oum Khalthoum in his days. Here is a link to a very interesting article about him and about what music can mean and what it can take.

Khorshid's story is a multi-faceted one with artistic promise, virtuosity, celebrity, musical eccentricity and tragedy. (source)

I won't expand to much on T.K Ramamoorthy whose album is amongst these albums it seems you can play in roughly any context and people will be happy listening to it. At least it was the case at the reception, it would even bring joy to the whole atmosphere. I won't expand because it is the second time we hear him here, so let us simply enjoy.

We pursue our jazzy moment with Bubbha Thomas & The Lightmen Plus One. Their album Fancy Pants was one of the first albums I clicked with when I began my quest to try to understand jazz a few years back. I had read somewhere a theory about taste. The writer was trying to defend the idea according to which one's taste is fixed at around twenty five of age. After that, one only enjoys re-dicoveries, or things that remind one of souvenirs. I was very confused by this idea and I paniked. I was twenty four years old and I realized I didn't really enjoy jazz, apart from a few exceptions like Dave Brubeck for instance. I thought it'd be unacceptable to pass my twenty fifth year and take the risk of this peculiar theory being true. So I started playing almost only jazz at the reception, ignoring drunk teenage tourists screaming they couldn't take anymore of these trumpets and begging for Britney Spears to save them. It was fun. The other album which really impressed me was Invitation to Openness by Les McCann, damn how good it was to cycle in Amsterdam with that sound in the ears!

Our jazzy moment goes on with the wonderful Guru and DJ Premier a.k.a Gang Starr. Then we have for the second time in a row Wynton Marsalis with Lincoln Center Orchestra on their latest release which features interludes by the great Wendell Pierce (Malcolm X, The Wire).

We smoothly transition from Jazz Land to Brazil which is a jazz land itself in a way, with the magnificent (I couldn't run out of positive adjectives to describe this master) Baden Powell. He honors us with his take on a composition by Johann Sebastian Bach, a Bachiana. After him comes another monument of Brazilian music, Clara Nunes.

We pursue with a more electronic moment in our playlist which begins with the band Liliental.

Liliental is the side project of Dieter Moebius after Cluster's momentary break. To accompany the artist in his new musical adventure, the band includes two members of the famous jazz rock band KRAAN: Helmut Hattler (on e-bass guitar) and Johannes Pappert (on alto sax parts). The musical engineer Conny Plank who participated to the publication of many Cluster's albums helps the band for guitar, synth, and manipulated voices parts. Their album was recorded in 1978 for the Brain records label. The tracks range from "ambient" synth experimentations fusing to rock, jazz, "exotic" elements. Liliental is more various, colourful than most of late Cluster albums from its ambient era. liliental guides the listener into a cunning, pleasant, intricate musical world with lof of "weird" experimentations, electronic patterns, loops and nice floating guitar harmonies. This recording is built as one long title. After this amazing project, Dieter Moebius and Conny Plank will record many others imaginative albums together, always putting the emphasis on "electronic". (source)

 

After Liliental we have another musician we love here at Sunday at Bob's and it shows because it is the second time we have it in our playlist. I first heard the music of Francis Bebey in a model drawing class approximately seven years ago. It was in Amsterdam, I was the only person who understood French and the song which was played by the teacher was a song which would have surely provoked scandal if it had been sung in a language everyone understood. The teacher, who was aware of the lyrics, looked at me with a little smile. At the end of the lesson he asked me what I thought, and anyway when I got home I looked up more of his stuff and did not regret it. Here he sings us his love for a tropical flower.

Then we have a short song from the above mentioned Moebius taken from the soundtrack of the movie Blue Moon. His minimalist style, and fondness for unique electronic sounds always made his music well-suited for soundtrack work. It is a little surprising that it took him until 1986 to score a film. Blue Moon (1986) is a little known German thriller from director Karsten Wichniarz. (source)

 

And we close with two folk songs, The Rising of the Moon by Grammy Award-winning American singer and songwriter Judy Collins and Ile Penaro taken from the last release of Argentinian musician globe trotter Ignacio Maria Gomez. 

That is all for this week, I hope you enjoyed. I see you in two weeks (I reckon I am back in a proper rythm aren't I?)

Check out time is 10h30 until the end of times.

The receptionist.

Playlist:

1. Khaled Kurbeh & Raman Khalaf Ensemble - Toska
2. The Scorpios - Kirfaya Mosa
3. Omar Khorshid - Anta Omri
4. T.K. Ramamoorthy - Natta
5. Bubbha Thomas & The Lightmen Plus One -On The Road Home
6. Gang Starr - Who’s Gonna Take The Weight
7. Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra/Wynton Marsalis/Wendell Pierce - Mr. Game: Beware! They're Going to Cause Problems/The Ever Fonky Lowdown in 4
8. Baden Powell - Bachiana
9. Clara Nunes - Canto das três raças
10. Liliental - Stresemannstrasse
11. Francis Bebey - Fleur tropicale
12. Moebius - Falsche Ruhe
13. Judy Collins - The Rising of the Moon
14. Ignacio Maria Gomez - Ile Penaro

Sunday at Bob's #41 - Un peu d’agape dans ce monde de guêpes

 Hello everyone and welcome back for another warm sunday in a cold world. Or is it that cold I might be exagerating. Nevertheless I had a very good playlist all prepared for today but I thought last minute I'd make another one a wee bit less meditative, less calm. A playlist a bit more energetic and positive because as much as I try to focus mainly on music, and keep it away from the ups and downs of life on earth when I write here, I do feel warmth is welcome. So I cooked what you are listening to today, I have danced to it, ran with it and done many things in the past days so you know it had been tested, verified and approved. Press play, let me do the writing.

 

We begin with a legend. Out of respect and fear of saying irrelevant things due to my limited knowledge of the context that surrounded the life of Lounes Matoub, I first thought to not write anything. However I think I can fairly say he is one of the most charismatic figures of Kabyle music. I can only recommend you look him up if you haven't heard about him, and enjoy his magnificent style on Imghereq. The variations in singing, with the spoken part, the use of silence, are things that truly make me fall of my chair. Sometimes I think in music like in real life, the acceptance of silence is an underrated strenght.

 

 We continue with the British post-punk explosive band Au Pairs that blew my mind the first time I heard it. I have been shopping groceries with their sound in my ears lately in order to spice up this activity context has made bizarre. Post-punk (or punk for that matter) is not really an area I am familiar with but I do find gems once in a while and always feel bad for not looking into it more. Anyway this one band is perfect to cycle when you're in a rush or to crystalize your frustration in public transport when you have no other choice.

We are now together, with the wife of the owner. Everyday together and the fantastic Ogoya Nengo And The Dodo Women’s Group succeed to remind us that simple fact. I share here the link to the video going with this song, it is almost necessary to hear it in context (as with most songs I guess).

Fadela and Cheb Sahraoui take over with a song that made dance the generation of my parents. A declaration of love and a invitation to celebrate, we remain in context.

After them comes Passy Mermans and his sweet honey voice with the beautiful C'est sérieux tantine (it's serious auntie). I couldn't find much information on Passy Mermans, mostly music which is a fact I'm not sure how to interpret but the music is great.

We continue with the very smooth band Khruangbin I reckon I don't have to introduce. Here we have a track from their last album Mordechai where they seem to take inspiration from Ethiopian music as well as from Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin. I am speculating, but I see this song as a strange Je t'aime moi non-plus where the two protagonists are flirting on top of music, almost as two separate things happening at the same time, brought back here and there to the usual understanding of a song by the chorus. Very cool.

Then we have again (but damn is he good) the great Duval Timothy and a song from his latest release, Brown Loop, which this time consists only of him playing piano, what else to ask?

We go on with a great song by another great singer I can't find anything about, at least not anything I comprehend. I do miss the reception and having a flow of people from everywhere in the world popping in, I could then ask about artists like Marília Parente and have precise informations. Anyway at least we have our ears, we can listen. (by the way, here is her album)

After Marília we enter the jazz department of today's playlist, with the famous Alfa Mist and a song from his even more famous album Antiphon, which would be on queue a lot on the YouTube autoplay at the reception. This one features Kaya Thomas-Dyke on the vocals. It is followed by the immense trumpeter, composer, teacher, and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center Wynton Marsalis who was actually featured in the original playlist and I thought as a shout out he should be here as well.

 

Exit the jazz moment with the very smooth Antonio "Toño" Fuentes and his Hawaïan guitar from Colombia. And we end with two songs I searched for after watching a very bizarre Greek movie called Το μίκρο ψάρι (Stratos) but which has great moments. Anyhow the soundtrack of the movie was made by a guy called Babis Papadopoulos, it's all, or mostly, guitar if I'm not mistaken. Very cool soundtrack so I looked it up and found out about a really nice album he made in 2010 called Απ' τη σπηλιά του δράκου (From Draco's Cave). The ending song Δώδεκα η ώρα νταν by Kostas Kollias also appears in the movie.

 

That is it for today, I hope the playlist will make up for my lack of writing creativity and wish you a great sunday.

 

Check out time is still 10h30 you bastards,

The receptionist

 

Playlist:

1. Lounes Matoub - Imghereq
2. Au Pairs - Pretty Boys (BBC Sessions)
3. Ogoya Nengo And The Dodo Women’s Group - On Monday
4. Fadela/Cheb Sahraoui - Nsalfik
5. Passy Mermans - C’est sérieux tantine
6. Khruangbin - Connaissais de Face
7. Duval Timothy - Badman
8. Marília Parente - Dia de João
9. Alfa Mist - Breathe
10. Wynton Marsalis - Superb Starling
11. Toño Fuentes y Su Guitarra Hawaiana - Adrianita
12. Babis Papadopoulos - A Song from Algiers
13. Kostas Kollias - Dodeka I Ora Ntan
 

Sunday at Bob's #40 - Such Is Life: An Absence

Good morning,
Good afternoon,
Good night

And that whether

You are sleeping,
Watching cartoons,
Or getting back on track

From hangover

Some days are bright
Some days are dark
Some days the only thing to do

Is to listen to these tracks

Some days cloudy
Some days in mist
Some days made sunny

By your ears on my playlist

Some days we laugh
Some days we cry
Such is life

Such is life

Welcome back, once again
For your bi-weekly experience
Ten songs under one song

The story, the tale of an absence

The story of a melody
That made it in
Then made it out

For the sake of harmony

Harmonious but not flat

However, a tribute is made
Through the title
It is only a see you again, big guy

Not a long goodbye

Maybe in two weeks?
Regardless
Now is now

Le temps presse

Let us begin
Let us start
Let the music play its part

While I learn rhyming

It is Joshua Redman’s hand
That invites us first
And in all our thirst

We grab it, after all

We’re only human
And we know we can trust
The drums waiting

Around the corner, on the grass

Ready to hit
The coup de grâce
To pour us like we pour

Liquor through the point of non-retour

Caught
Delivered without ransom
To a mysterious voice

Mysterious but not random

Ungraspable
But not immaterial
Similar to fumes

Is the music of Alabaster Deplume

Sometimes dreaming of going away
Leaving friends
Knowing they’ll be okay

Other times doing it anyway

Sometimes looking back
Realising only once it vanished
The things we presently lack

And not coming back

Dancing to forget
Dancing to remember
Dancing to the songs

Of our ancestors

Dancing, dancing
Here is a great album to dance
It might even put you in a trance

The Imaginary Soundtrack to a Brazilian Western Movie

And from Brazil to Cap-Vert
An imaginary bridge
Very much there

Very much there

Kept safe by musicians
Guarded by musics
Preserved by guardians

In peculiar tunics

The Cachupa Psicadelicas
Let us cross
Like boss

And we cross back

All the way to LA
What can we say?
We would be so lonely

Without Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti

Then we have Jeff Parker
Right after
With a banger

From his album Suite for Max Brown

And then we have a song
Aman aman
Then we have a song

From a great duo

Amongst which is a friend of mine
And a fascinating human being
Just listen to them playing

Yet another bridge

Towards the end you can hear
The guitar switching
To this caracteristic rythm

And the oud following

What a thrill

It only made sense
To pursue this quest
And to enhance

To re-invite an old guest

Aşık Veysel
We heard him here before
We wanted to hear some more

And to close this circle

Without taking a risk
We have the giant Kyria Politissa
And her Den me toumbaris

And Spyros, with his bouzouki!

Opa! Dig those sweet fingers playing the bouzouki!
Gia sou, Spyro, with your bouzouki, gia sou!*

I will stop rhyming for a second
To urge you with serious
To go and purchase this album with its super interesting booklet.

You won’t regret

The last song is a bonus track
Sent to me by a dear friend
Of someone we talked about a while back

Mohamed Lamouri

We talked about him playing
In Paris’ subway
And a friend hearing him

On his way to school, as a kid, everyday

This very friend saw him again
And had the reflex
Of recording a piece

Of music in context

This is it for today
I hope you enjoyed
The music, the rhymes the playlist

Check out time remains 10h30
The receptionist

*Marika Politissa - All Parts Dark. Released by Olvido Records and Mississippi Records in 2020
OLV-009 / MRI-124. English Translations by Tony Klein

Playlist:

1. Joshua Redman - Mantra #5
2. Alabaster Deplume - Going Away/The Lucky Ones
3. Camarão - Camarão No Oriente
4. Cachupa Psicadelica - Ca Mistid Mentira
5. Ariel Pink - Life In La
6. Jeff Parker - Fusion Swirl
7. dahaW ⅃ꓘ - 1st is 0
8. Aşık Veysel - Sazım
9. Marika Politissa - Den me toumbaris
10. Mohamed Lamouri - Subway Recording

Sunday at Bob's #39 - Twenty Twenty

Hello everybody and welcome back
Before anything, happy new year
May this one be better
May it provide for what the last one lacked

As we close another cycle
We ask the next one to bring us plenty
Plenty of tools to figure out whatever happened
In twenty twenty

So you see, we are back with poetry

At least rhymes
We do it gladly
Or we try
To pass the time

Anyhow
Let us begin
Open your eyes
Turn off your phones

Sit back now
Breath out, breath in
Then close your eyes
I’m just kidding

Here is the playlist

You should know our first guest
In here he flies first class
He sure is amongst the best
It is Majid Bekkas
With his Magic Spirit Quartet

They do us the honour
With a classic from the Gnaouas
We did hear once here before
Played by Maalem Mahmoud Guinia
Bania

With Majid, there is a twist

We are used to his jazz collaborations
We know them well
Regardless
It is always with the same fascination
That we press play
That we play press

Then comes a band
Whose beautiful story
I told times and times again
At the reception

Elia y Elizabeth

It was a succesful band
But very briefly
Between 1972 and 1973
Intense in passion

The band came to an end
Alledgedly
As I understand
For them to pursue their studies

A lesson

We go on with Sharpshooters
Discovered while watching The Wire
Still haven’t recovered
From such fire fired

Their album reminds of a song
Written by Claude MC
Talking about the fusion
That gave birth to such beauty

That is rap

Si le Jazz excèle
Le rap en est l’étincelle
Qui flambe les modes, qui sont toujours
À temps partiel

We enter the blurry zone
Of today’s playlist
Magic monsters and furry bones
In a foggy mist

That is how I see Blake Leyh’s Dreadfish

I have no clue what it refers to
It’s like a reggae song that never begins
Like a hairy snake that never ends
With no head and to tail too

On its back we travel
For around eight minutes
Towards the next musical panel
That nothing could disrupt

They are more than two tousands and I only see these two

The rain merged them, it seems
One another
While one of the best rappers
Reminds us that even the deads once were toddlers

What a gem
A few drops suffice
Of Lino’s rhymes
And we are twenty again

J’ai fait un cauchemar j’ai dû rêver que j’avais du taf

Is what you could hear if you could
dig the underground of a painting
Under the ground under the building
Under the castle of the King

Hence its follower
A song from Le Roi et L’oiseau
Mellow rêveur but bitter
Mains vers le bas, yeux vers le haut

Walking in circles

In his hand a flower
In his mind a struggle
In her arms a mumble
On their heads a bird

On the bird a castle
One tousand and one rumors
As many are possible
Sang beautifully by Peggy Seeger

What a timber!

In one the the first posts here
I said about Bill Withers
His voice is like honey to the ears
And so is hers

A very good friend of mine
Introduced me to Vincent Dumestre
And not a day goes by
Without my being thankful

It is beautiful

Though a vast repertoire
Brings joy at first
Excitement then, then désespoir
The opposite of unsatisfied thirst

How long will it take
To listen to it all? To have a complete view?
But you can’t have your cake
And it eat too

And that’s the truth

The last bit of our journey is folk
And like some folk that be
It has its own mouth to talk
Mine is not necessary

But please, before closing
Look up the story
Of The Shoals of Herring
You might even find a old show by the BBC

About it

Another cycle is closed
Time to release the tension
Time to sort out the last details
And close the reception

Not indefinitely
I will see you again for another playlist
Check out time is still 10h30
The receptionist

Playlist:

1. Majid Bekkas - Bania
2. Elia y Elizabeth - Alegría
3. Sharpshooters - Hot Buttered Rum
4. Blake Leyh - Dreadfish
5. Jeff Beal - Distance Myself
6. Ärsenik/J.P. - Dans ma ruche
7. Stanislaw Wislocki/L'orchestre symphonique de la radio et de la télévision polonaise - La bergère et le ramoneur
8. Peggy Seeger - When I Was Single
9. Vincent Dumestre/Le Poème Harmonique - Passacalle, La Folie
10. Blaze Foley - Election Day
11. Tom Rush - Urge For Going
12. Ewan McColl & Peggy Seeger - The Shoals of Herring