Sunday at Bob's #6 - Fuma col fuoco in bocca

 
Fuma col fuoco in bocca... per non fare da bersaglio nella notte. He smokes with the fire in his mouth... to not be a target in the night. Last week I went to see Padre Padrone, the 1977 masterpiece from the Taviani Brothers and it was a blast. Happening the 1940s Sardinia, it is a very powerful but sensitive movie. It is constructed in a very interesting way and eventhough it lasts over two hours it never gets boring and always surprises. It depicts the life of a kid whose father takes away from school at age five to teach him the sheperd's life. The kid grows up apart from human society and has all the troubles in the world to enter it once adult. Today's playlist was an attempt to reflect the spirit of Padre Padrone, its harshness and sometimes its absurdity. I believe it is a selection that tends to go in every direction but I wanted to try to make it a bit spicy. Here it is.

It starts with a track by Egisto Macchi (who composed the soundtrack of Padre Padrone) from his album Il Deserto, an experimental and intriguing trip in the desert recorded in 1974. I like how this song just constantly seems to be promising to unlock some explosion of treasures and then doesn't but somehow manages to keep us in this state of excitement for a great gift.

After that comes a song from an album I have been wanting to include here for some time but never really figured out how. First because it holds many gems, Universal Beings is composed of 22 tracks of various lenghts. Second because it is truly a complete album in the sense that if I listen to it and think: that song goes in the next playlist, I face the impossibility of not including the one that comes after given how relevant the whole they form is. Makaya McRavens is a Paris born drummer, raised in New England
who is an important figure of this exciting young jazz scene that explores new musical territories with musicians like Shabaka Hutchings or Nubya Garcia who were mentioned here in the past weeks. I particularly enjoy The Fifth Monk because it takes the time it needs to establish a deep texture and play with it.

Alain Peters is a recent discovery. He is a poet from the French island Réunion who started music at a very young age. In the 60s he surfed along on the pop rock wave that went accross the island and swallowed séga and traditional music helped by vinyls sent from England by his cousin. It is only in the mid 70s that he turned back to maloya and rediscovered a national treasure along with the band Les Caméléons. They mixed Hendrix and The Beatles influences with séga and maloya rythms. Now I really am not a specialist of music from Réunion but I am a lover of the Réunion's creole sonorities, which in my opinion sounds a bit like honey.

A small interlude by Strong Arm Steady follows, they were mentioned in last week's post. And we go on with another recent discovery, music from East Europe that I discovered in the compilation Flammes du coeur - Gypsy Queens. I very much recommend that compilation which is made of very strong and deep songs that cannot leave you indifferent. These singers have amazing voices. Romica Puceanu has an intensity that I would be tempted to compare with the recent pieces by Elza Soares and reading about her makes me also somehow think of monuments of music such as Oum Kalthoum. I won't risk myself to write about something I really know nothing but here is a link to a text about Romica Puceanu that can spread some light on this beutiful area of music, if you understand french.

In today's playlist you will also find the Japanese rock band Kikagaku Moyo that I discovered on a Mixcloud page specialized in the matter, an extract of the Blue Note vibraphonist Joel Ross' first album KingMaker (he is also present on Makaya McRavens' Universal Beings), the guitar giant Baden Powell and James "Plunky" Branch who I have to investigate on a bit more. Susan Alcorn's beatiful take on Astor Piazzolla closes the selection.

That is all for this week, please mind the neighbours when smoking joints in front!

Enjoy,
Check out time is 10h30

The receptionist

Playlist:

1. Egisto Macchi - L'Eco Delle Gole
2. Makaya Mccraven / Jeff Parker / Anna Butterss / Josh Johnson / Carlos Niño / Miguel Atwood-Ferguson - The Fifth Monk
3. Alain Peters - Plime La Misère
4. Strong Arm Steady - Smile
5. Romica Puceanu - Tinerete, Tinerete
6. Kikagaku Moyo -Dripping Sun
7. Joel Ross - III Relations
8. Baden Powell - Round About Midnight
9. Plunky - African Sunset
10. Susan Alcorn - Sodade