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