Two or three weeks ago I posted a Moroccan special Sunday at Bob's, started to wrote a long text about it but eventually had to give up. I couldn't finish it on time and I realised it was more than the usual weekly post. The material and informations I gathered during the two months I passed in the Cherifian Kingdom additionned to the lack of knowledge I have of this area of music made a too big obstacle to casually jump over during a sunday shift at Bob's. However you can listen to the playlist here, you might still enjoy it. Today I finally get back to business, the high season is over, the roads are wet, writing warms. I prepared an unusually short playlist in lenght but with as many songs as usual, here it is, let it dry you.
We enter it with an extract from Fellini's Satyricon soundtrack. Composed by Nino Rota (La Dolce Vita, The Godfather...) and named after Jérôme Bosch's painting, which makes sense given how the whole movie feels like walking around an ancient Roman version of one, Il giardino delle delizie is a bit less than a minute long. I heard a connexion with the following song that I found interesting to exploit. Maybe some oddness in it is mirrored in the use of a sitar in The Pentangle's Cruel Sister.
I just recently discovered The Pentangle. After having been smashed in and out of the three dimensioned world as we know it by Bert Jansch's self titled debut album I had to look more into that guy's stuff. I was not disapointed. I find the song Cruel Sister rather impressive, by the way it manages to keep it interesting while having that melody repeated over and over for seven minutes. I also very much enjoy the way the sitar is used to support that melody, while it happens often that sitars sounds like absurd additions to my ears (but who am I if not a modest listener whose brain isn't trained to the subtleties of Indian music, let alone the combinations of that music with a western one?).
Then we have a jazz tune by the Recifense piano prodigy Amaro Freitas, and we go on with the playful Chicken is Nice by one of my favourite folk musicians Dave Van Ronk. It took me some time to figure out excactly what were the Robert's Falls, Cape Palmas, Sinoe and Monrovia (spelled Quepamas, Cyno on google lyrics). I recently found out there is an older version of that song from which Van Ronk got his inspiration. Eventhough I haven't had the chance to listen to it, I know it is on a compilation from Liberian folk songs, those places are in Liberia. It also explains why he finds chicken with palm butter and rice nice since it is a typical West African dish.
I stumbled upon Cécile McLorin Salvant's work about a year ago and am still evenly amazed by the power and rocket science precision her voice hits the right spots each time I listen to The Window. That album is really one of a kind, at least I had never heard anything like it in terms of variety and intensity.
Sullivan Fortner, who played with Roy Hargrove amongst other, does a fantastic job on the piano and gets the space to expand some very cool things.
I started listening to The Village Callers after watching Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood, which has a great soundtrack album where I rediscovered Neil Diamond amongst other. Then we have the recently passed multi-disciplinary artist Daniel Johnston (may he rest in peace). I had the chance to see his exhibition in the Collection de l'Art Brut in Lausanne some years back and was quite impressed by his productivity in both his music and his drawings. We go on with Richard & Linda Thompson, as well discovered very recently as I started craving for folk music after getting back to Amsterdam's life, Champion Jack Dupree who we had in Bob's in the past already.
The playlist ends on a gem that was featured in Floating Point's Late Night Tales. I didn't know the story of Bobby Wright nor his music before and I must say that I can't get enough of it. "Wright, who now goes by Abu Talib, worked as a construction worker and
cab driver while moonlighting as a bandleader in New York City. After
his band was torn apart by the Vietnam War—two members were drafted, one
of whom was killed in action—he recorded two songs with the only
remaining member, his bassist. The label says "he self-released the
record in 1974, one which holds its own alongside the all-time greats."(source)
That is all for this week! I will do my best to be mor constant from now on.
Enjoy!
Please do check out before 10.30,
The receptionist
Playlist:
1. Nino Rota - Il giardino delle delizie
2. The Pentangle - Cruel Sister
3. Amaro Freitas - Rasif
4. Dave Van Ronk - Chicken is Nice
5. Cécile McLorin Salvant - À Clef
6. The Village Callers - The Frog
7. Daniel Johnston - Favourite Darling Girl
8. Richard & Linda Thompson/Richard & Linda Thompson - I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight
9. Champion Jack Dupree - Ain't That A Hard Pill to Swallow
10. Bobby Wright - Blood of an American
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