Sunday at Bob's #17 - Tralala

Good afternoon, good evening, good morning you are listening to Sunday at Bob's and the vibe is good. This week's playlist introduces reggae I believe for the first time, spicy. Since I take two weeks instead of one to compose them, the playlist are growing up slightly differently than before. When before i could have it in the back of my head for a full day and make the tracklist in a few hours, I now slide songs in a folder when I think they could be interesting and end up with a bunch of songs from different moods and times at the end of the week. I guess the playlist might be less harmonious but maybe more exciting, let's see.

The introduction is made by Paraguayan harpist Sergio Cuevas with a wonderful song I heard first on Nicolas Jaar's album Sirens. I have very little information about Sergio Cuevas, as a matter a fact that is the only song I ever heard from him, if anyone has more please share.

We pursue with a move I am not used doing in these playlist. Theo Parrish recently released Wat you gonna ask for is a 9' long track on which he is improvising around a piano loop on very good company. "On What You Gonna Ask For, Parrish collaborates with a group of Melbourne-based musicians. Among them are three members of the neo-soul quartet Hiatus Kaiyote (Simon Mavin, Perrin Moss and Paul Bender). Silent Jay, who has previously appeared on Rhythm Section, plays the saxophone and Lori sings the lead. The result is an improvised live jam built around a simple piano riff. At ten minutes long, there's plenty of time to appreciate each musician's contribution—Lori's casual vocal delivery and Paul Bender's bass stand out particularly, as does the loose and dusty percussion." (source)

After listening to that I had to dig a bit more on that neo-soul quartet and I was not disapointed. Proof being that the following track is by them. Breathing Underwater is a very cool track to listen to while cycling through park under the freezing sun of November.

Then comes the almighty Carlos Paredes and his flawless fado guitar. The sort of flute playing in the beggining reminds a lot the melody of a brazilian song called Canto De Xango. I haven't got much to add except that it provoked the next song to be one of a Bob's regular singers, Jorge Ben Jor. His album A Tabua de Esmeralda is truly a gem. I chose Errare Humanum Est as a wink to the Mc Solaar song featured on SAB#15. Pffff je pensais créer l'harmonie...

We enter now the french rock parenthesis of our journey.  First with Messieurs Richard de Bordeaux et Daniel Beretta who are asking you where is their hash, their opium, their kiff. And then with one of my all time favourite song writer and singer, Jacques Higelin. He, on the other hand, askes if his guitare is a rifle. A question that deserves some reflection. His explosive lyrical talent is to be admired here without limits. "Je le sais, parceque tout ce qui brûle est rouge, je le sais. Le sang qui roule dans mes veines est rouge". He passed away last year and with him a whole page of my childhood, his album Illicite was the only one we had with curses in the lyrics, we would play it over and over delighted and amazed to hear on CD words we were not allowed to say in real life. "Casse toi connard, et chaud devant!"

The parenthesis ends a bit abruptly and Bach takes over. Czech guitarist Vladislav Blaha does us the honor.

And now... the reggae. First Nina Simone. If I was to feature such a monument of music here I had to do it in an unexpected way otherwise it would have been to easy. I knew this song because is had been sampled by Jay-Z on the only album from him I listen to repeatedly (the song is called Caught Their Eyes with Frank Ocean, the album 4:44). The story of that song is quite fascinating, as is anything involving Nina Simone, and the story of the album even more so, here is a glimpse.

"Veteran jazz producer Creed Taylor decided to sign Nina Simone to his record label after seeing her perform live in 1977 at Drury Lane, and together they would record "Baltimore," (...) Sessions for the album were very tense, with Simone disagreeing with Taylor's production choices—particularly his interest in a reggae sound, which first caused Simone to ask "What is this corny stuff?"Simone's difficult behavior delayed production, but she would eventually record her vocals for the album in a single hour-long sitting. The place of recording may have had something to do with Simone's behavior, as she would later call the historic barn where Baltimore was recorded "a basement in Belgium where I was forced to sing songs in order to get out of there." (source)

The closing track is by Gregory Isaacs who was shown to me by a math teacher when I was twelve and I never stopped listening to that dude. Night Nurse has been many time my shift closing, couting money album. Cutie Cutie is a song I find very interesting, I really enjoy the small electronic addition in the chorus, and his singing is just unbeatable as always.

That's it for today!
Don't forget to check out before 10h30!

Enjoy,
the receptionist

Playlist:

1. Sergio Cuevas - Lagrimas
2. Theo Parrish - What You Gonna Ask For (Theo's Mix)
3. Hiatus Kaiyote - Breathing Underwater
4. Carlos Paredes - III Mudar de Vida (Musica de Fundo)
5. Jorge Ben Jor - Errare Humanum Est
6. Messieurs Richard de Bordeaux et Daniel Beretta - La drogue
7. Jacques Higelin - Est-ce que ma guitare est un fusil
8. Vladislav Blaha - Bach-SuiteN3 BWV 995 I
9. Nina Simone - Baltimore
10. Gregory Isaacs - Cutie Cutie