Sunday at Bob's #21 Do You See Me Sailing?

 
Hello again my dears,

I must apologize for I had completely forgotten to publish last week. In my mind everything was floating safely and today was the day I would post the last playlist on date. Well I was wrong and realized it last monday. However I had taken a few days off to visit my family and friends in my native country and thought: what is Sunday at Bob's really, if it's not on a sunday nor at Bob's? I shall apologize one more time because today's text might be very short for I have fallen sick a couple of hours after landing. Probably due to the fact that the sun rarely visits Amsterdam. Regardless, let's take a look at what we have this week.

We start with a wonderful acapella piece taken from a very well made compilation of Ethiopian love songs. I had planned to give this playlist a general direction that would highlight the outstanding similarities between Ethiopian music and Moroccan berber music (starting with the fact that they use sibling instruments, the masinko being the Ethiopian version of the rbab). It is a phenomenon I can't wrap my head around and that fascinates me more all the time. If you have any clue as to what event could have provoked such result, probably dating back from way earlier than the arab conquests in the VIIth century and the birth of Islam, feel free to contact me.

"Solo song in the bati mode by Ejigayehu "Gigi" Shibabaw. A woman who is in love, living in Bati, longs for her lover. She wants him to come join her so that at last they may share their happiness together. The song also describes the beauty of the landscapes of Raya and Tobo, and the kindness of the inhabitants. 

Come, come, why are you leaving?
My eyes are so hungry. (...)
The desire I feel for your body draws me,
draws me out of Bati. (...)
I saw the tracks of his horse,
I hear the sound of his hooves.
Gone...gone... He is really gone

(source)

 After that comes an extremely deep solo violin taksim (which means improvisation if I am not mistaken) by Takis Papageorgiou. I am working on a list of blogs to recommend to our readers, it includes the one where I discovered this masterpiece. We pursue with a jazzy tune from a jazzy album by a wonderful trio composed of Dave Holland, Zakir Hussain and Chris Potter. I very much recommend their album Good Hope.

Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares (The Mystery Of The Bulgarian Voices) was released in 1975 by Swiss organist, ethnomusicologist and music producer Marcel Cellier. It is a compilation album of modern arrangements of Bulgarian folk songs featuring, among others, the Bulgarian State Radio & Television Female Vocal Choir. Talking about deep music, this compilation (the result of a fifteen year long research) puts you in a state not much music can.

We move on but we don't go too far with the Greek/Israeli superstar Aris San and his hommage to Oum Khaltoum's Nta Omri (you are my life). It is followed by a musician I discovered recently and can't get enough of: Abu Obaida Hassan and his tambour. Then we can enjoy an extract from a great compilation straight from Brazil, Jambú e Os Míticos Sons Da Amazônia that you can purchase here.

"This revelatory survey of the music of Northern Brazil from the 1970s and ’80s is by turns alien and familiar, sacred and profane, always raw and thrilling." (source)

I don't think the next band needs much introduction as its saxophonist has been featured and praised here more than once. Here are the Sons of Kemet with the chillest song of their magnificent album Your Queen Is A Reptile.

We end with a half hour of jazz played for us by Resavoir and Chick Corea & Steve Gadd Band.

I apologize again for the short post and I hope you have a pleasant listen! I see you in two weeks with more surprises.

Check out time is still 10h30

The receptionist

Playlist:

1. Ejigayehu Gigi Shibabaw - Tirut Yebatin Lig
2. Takis Papageorgiou - Taksim In The Makām Hidžazkar
3. Dave Holland, Zakir Hussain & Chris Potter - Suvarna
4. Bulgarian State Radio & Television Female Vocal Choir - Kalimankou Denkou
5. Aris San - Boumpam
6. Abu Obaida Hassan - La...La (Don‚t Say I Am Betraying You)
7. Grupo da Pesada - Lundun Da Yaya
8. Sons of Kemet - My Queen Is Nanny Of The Maroons
9. Resavoir - Escalator
10. Chick Corea & Steve Gadd Band - Wake-Up Call

Sunday at Bob's #20 Some Go Some Stay

First of all, happy new year. In Amsterdam, after the always very intense firework session that enlights the city for a few hours after midnight, we woke up with a hangover symbolised by the new laws concerning housing (but also tourism as you will notice in the  salty taste of your bill at the check in) effective starting 2020. These laws, here to give a new kick in the gentrification program of the city, convinced a lot of my friends to leave the beautiful capital and sail for new horizons and new adventures. This playlist is dedicated to those who go, and those who stay. It is also dedicated to the wonderful guests we have had the chance to host in the past weeks, from the Brazilian girls who grabbed our guitar at midnight and started to sing the most delightful songs, leaving the whole lobby amazed, to the group of Turkish guests who shared their favourite music from Barış Manço (who is featured here today) and many more. Come back anytime. Cheers.

Last time, I talked about the music I find once in a while thanks to rap samples. Today we start with an amazing song I first heard in the banger Grindin' My Whole Life from Hit-Boy & HS87's. I realised recently most of my friends knew about John Surman but did not know Hit-Boy and I am not sure what to make of that. Regardless this is another example of thanks deserved to a rap beatmaker. In bonus I present you one of the best ever french rap group Lunatic and their sample of Edges of Illusions that dates back to 2000. Eventhough it is taken from an album I destroyed due to multiple listenings, I never realised the sample was the same as Hit-Boy's.

I think a couple of weeks back we had a song by the greatest of the greats Fairuz. Today we have a composition by her son Ziad Rahbani, who I think, wrote the song from Fairuz we had here last time. I remember reading somewhere that he was responsible for the jazzy sparkles in some of her albums. Anyhow we have the chance to appreciate 13 minute of Rahbani's 1978's gem Abu Ali.

It is followed by a song I fell in love with the first time I heard it. I did not know anything about Mike James Kirkland until recently but he has been cycling with me the 10km that seperate my home from the city center many times since then. Hang On In There feels like many songs in one, the transitions are exquisite and some lines just hit you hard. Yoooou can't make me love, and IIII don't wanna leave! still in the thematic aren't we?

We pursue with the above mentionned groove magician, the Turkish Panoramix Barış Manço and the Kurtalan Ekspres. I strongly recommend you go around and dig in that musician's career, there is some rare diamonds to be found and some very dancable sounds. 

Then comes another album found thanks to samples, this time from Gonjasufi's masterpiece A Sufi and A Killer, I could make a playlist only consisting of songs he sampled for that album. Sheep allowed me to be introduced to Ilaiyaraaja's wonderful work, especially on the soundtrack of the 1983 movie Sadma. I strongly recommend to listen to the whole thing, it goes from sad to fun, from odd to very catchy.

There is no need to introduce the fantastic Harry Belafonte who caresses us today with the smooth Come Back Liza, who wouldn't if called so gently? Then we have a song by Sessa from Brazil, who was amongst the few good surprises I got while browsing the annual top albums established by journals and websites.

Grandeza is an album about the natural gesture of love and the softness of the human body. It’s also about my love for Brazilian music and its many shapes and colors. I like to think that it exists somewhere among the rituals that celebrate life. It’s a reminder that amongst all the pain, music comes to reaffirm the beauty in living. Source

We go on with another great surprise of 2019. The sound of Trey Gruber is one I don't naturally lean towards however it gave me chills I hadn't felt for a while. May he rest in peace.

Trey Gruber’s time in Chicago's indie rock community was brief but his presence was deeply felt, and still resonates today. With his band Parent, he wrote searching and vulnerable songs with an authenticity that transcended the crowded field of bands translating classic records from the ‘70s into a current Midwestern context. Source

I have to apologize but I am going to use someone else's words for the third time in a row.

Earth Rot is in effect a cantata for the planet, or, in Axe's own words "contemporary music with ancient yet timely words set to the theme of ecology." Those ancient yet timely words come from the book of Isaiah in the Bible and for a Navajo legend called "Song of the Earth Spirit." (...) Axelrod's musical begins by celebrating the earth's lorry and then indicting humans for messing it up. Source

This album is probably amongst the craziest thing I have heard in a long time. I can't get enough of it and if you happen to listen to it from beggining to end you will understand what I meant two weeks ago. That album is a work, it is one thing. It reminds me of discussions I had where we would speculate as to why it is so difficult to find decent recordings of gnawa music, for instance. One of the reasons we proposed was that in some places music is only meant to be experienced fully, in the presence of the musicians. Music must have had a function at some point (that is a topic Christopher King develops in Lament from Epirus) amongst the gnawas it still does, it is here to cure, to heal. The idea of listening to gnawa music from a walkman or any sound system is probably so absurd given its prime purpose that there is no need to even record it properly, or at least it is a strange gesture in itself. In our western world however we got used to that album format, which is pretty recent in the history of music (I recommend the documentaries American Epic to have a glimpse at how that industry started). David Axelrod takes that format and makes music within it, or acknowledging it, a bit like when painters started to question their medium's potential and gave birth to movements like support-surface in France, shaped canvas in the USA. Keep in mind that these are only speculations though.

I thought it would be interesting to end lightly. After that powerful warning about global warming, I chose to put a song that makes a precise image pop up in my head. Whenever I listen to it, I imagine to be the last human on earth but in the beggining of the experience, when it is still fun. When I can pick where I want to go, chose what I want to eat from deserted stores, what I want to drink. I fill a shopping cart with booze, junk food and cigars, jump in a boat on herengracht and take off. A good friend wrote a song about a similar fantasy. It was very nice, we did the best we could.

Enjoy, I see you in two weeks!

Check out time will always be 10h30 (pas op!)

The receptionist

Playlist:

1. John Surman - Edges of Illusion
2. Ziad Rahbani - Abu Ali
3. Mike James Kirkland - Hang On In There
4. Barış Manço & Kurtalan Ekspres - Çoban Yildizi/Bir Selam Sana Gönül Dağlarından
5. Asha Bhosle, Suresh Wadkar - Yeh Hawa Yeh Fiza Deewano Ko
6. Harry Belafonte - Come Back Liza
7. Sessa - Toda Instância do Prazer
8. Trey Gruber - Get Your Fix
9. David Axelrod - The Warnings Part II
10. Blind Blake and The Royal Victoria Hotel Calypsos - The Cigar Song