Sunday at Bob's #8 - Goodbye Casual

Goodbye casual sundays at Bob's, high season is back and the reservation list is getting longer and longer. My last shift ended at 2AM instead of the usual midnight. Late check-ins and errors in the counting delayed everything but well, the rest of the year is so pleasant that it's already forgotten. All that to say that the following two or three posts might include more quotes than usual since I have less time. This week's playlist is a bit in the continuity of the last one in the sense that I tried to remain consistent, picked songs that take their time to express themselves and did not make exagerated jumps in between moods. I hope you will like it, here it is.

It begins with the outstanding greek musician Kostas Bezos and The White Birds. Outstanding by his Hawaiian inspired version of Rembetiko (some of his songs even include yodel) which I find very unexpected but beautiful. Who knew that Greek popular music had a real kink for Hawaiian steel guitar music since the 1920’s? (...) If we consider the connection between the guitar’s ancient arabic roots, and the way it mutated into lap steel and ukulele styles out in the middle of the Pacific during the 1800s before becoming absorbed into Greek middle class and popular music of the 1920’s, then Kostas Bezos And The White Birds pushes the concept of Greek folk music as a bridge between East and West to totally new, extreme degrees for any listener who has a taste for this sound unmatched by their knowledge of it provenance. (source) I will probably include and write a bit more about Rembetiko in the coming weeks because it is very interesting.

Then we have a song by the marvelous Francis Bebey that was introduced to me five years ago by a Dutch drawing teacher of mine who was really into it. One song in particular stayed with me since then, Sanza Tristesse is not featured here but I strongly recommend it. Bebey was born in a poor family of Douala, economic capital of Cameroon. His dad, a pastor who plays accordeon, introduced him to music and raised him to the sound of Bach, Haendel etc. He also had an ear for traditional music through his neighbour who would play the mouth bow at night. Apart from being a great musician, he worked as a journalist for french and african radios. He was also a remarkable writer (Sanza Tristesse testifies) and in 1968 he won the Grand prix littéraire d'Afrique noire for his book Le Fils d’Agatha Moundio.

After that come Les Filles de Illighadad (the girls from Illighadad), a band I discovered live in OCCII two years ago and I was instantly struck by the power and the mastery they express over their music. They truly use their voices the same way they use their instruments (it might sound like I am breaking through an open door but I think that in that case it is particularly true). It is very impressive on Imigradan how the vocals in the beggining echoe with the electric guitar that comes after. If you want to know more about them (and if you understand french) click here.

We go on with Nâ Hawa Doumbia from Mali who I encountered first on Awesome Tapes From Africa. I don't know much about her, I have four tracks on my computer that I play once in a while. I find the (complex) simplicity of her songs almost holy and could listen to it for hours.

Today's playlist features as well Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek, a fresh and modern super-quintet which performs an electrified and highly danceable set of Turkish music led by Derya Yıldırım’s hypnotizing Saz and vocals. It combines Anatolian Folk and modern grooves, often contaminated by hints of Psychedelia, Jazz and Funk. (source) A band that, with Altın Gün and other, are spreading a contemporary version of the Anatolian Rock inherited from Erkin Koray (who was mentioned here a few weeks ago) and more, around the world. Ibrahim Maalouf and his breathtaking take on Oum Kalthoum's Alf Leila wa Leila. In Movement I we can hear him play around with the sentence Winta wana, ya habibi ana, ya hayati ana (you and me, my love, my life) sung so wonderfully in the strongly recommended original version. I wanted to make a comparison between that melodic repetition and the one happening right after in Mixed Feelings of Jean-Paul Estiévenart (who I saw completely randomly in Brussels a few months ago and then again in the Bimhuis with Urbex and was blown away). That pam-pam-pam coming back is the reason why I put those two songs back to back. I have the feeling they have a lot in common. 

We also have the South African Jazz band Mabuta, the intergalactic Luiz Bonfá from Brasil and the Moroccan band of the 70s Jil Jilala who I will most likely expand a bit more about in the coming weeks since I am off to Morocco from July to September and intend to explore.


That's it for this week!
Enjoy, and remember to check out before 10h30 (tea and coffee are served at the reception until 11h00).

The receptionist

Playlist:

1. Kostas Bezos and the White Birds - Τ’Άσπρα Πουλιά στα βουνα (The White Birds In The Mountains)
2. Francis Bebey - Binta madiallo
3.  Les Filles de Illighadad - Imigradan
4. Na Hawa Doumbia - Demisen kulu
5. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek - Nem Kaldı
6. Ibrahim Maalouf - Movement I
7. Jean-Paul Estiévenart - Mixed Feelings
8. Mabuta - As We Drift Away
9. Luiz Bonfá - Leque
10. Jil Jilala - Hada Wa'dek Ya Meskin

Sunday at Bob's #7 - Rain in June

We were unlucky with the weather this week, I had gotten used to have sun in June but recently we had rain. It made me think of a verse by Jacque Brel: J'en suis venu à prier Dieu - Mais on sait bien qu'il est trop vieux - Et qu'il n'est plus maître de rien (To the point of praying to God - But we all know He’s far too old - And no longer in command). Although he is sad about a woman and not the temperature, I believe he expresses a feeling of powerlessness that can be transposed when witnessing climat change. One rainy day of June I stayed in and assembled this playlist. This time I allowed myself to include a few rather long track when I usually limit myself to one, underestimating the patience of the listener. I also tried to remain consistant and not jump from the donkey to the roaster. Whithout further delay, here it is.

It starts with a song by the Paulistana band (and by that I mean to say they are from São Paulo) Höröyá which is composed of West African and Brazilian musicians. Höröyá means freedom, autonomy in mandeng (...) their music brings some important African roots, it is a summary of some musicalities and it has a musical construction that does not follow the Western standard, not based on harmonic sequences or on melodic themes for instance. Höröyá´s  music is more focused on percussion bringing with it an essence of the African yards, the dance groups found in the Mandeng culture, a culture that has in Famoudou Konate one of its greatest representatives.(source)

We go on with a musician I discovered this year and cannot get enough of, for his capacity to explore so many different areas of music while remaining very coherent. I admire him as well for managing to greatly combine two genres that I love particularly: jazz and gnaoua. He has been featured here once before with Joachim Kühn and Ramon Lopez on the powerfull Enjoy. Majid Bekkas is also the co-artistic director of the festival Jazz au Chellah in Rabat since 1996. The song Bossoyo seems to me like a version of a song that comes back often in gnaoua music, I think that the song of Babkou Mustapha in the first playlist is one example. Although I have no proof of that at all.

The third track of the playlist is taken from an album that followed me since I am a kid, it was always around. Alla (Abdelaziz Abdallah is his full name) is an Algerian musician who built his first lute at 16 with a plastic can, a wooden piece, and bicycle brake cables as strings. Along his career, he developed a style he called Fondou, made of calm, improvised melodies that borrow to berber and arabic traditional music amongst other. A hypothesis as to the why of the term Fondou is that it is a combination of fond and doux which are French for substance and sweet, roughly, because fond is a difficult word to translate. I like that suggestion. His album is called Tanakoul, which means I am eating and I always found that intriguing but rather playful.

We take a jazz turn for the two tracks following with one taken from a quite interesting album that reunites a five exciting young musicians: Walter Smith III, Matthew Stevens, Joel Ross (he was included in last week's playlist), Harish Raghavan, and Marcus Gilmore. The album in called In Common. I added Unconditional Love because it is a song that is a rather rare example of a fully instrumental song in which I feel I understand the idea of it almost as if it had descriptive lyrics. When I listened to it the first time and read the title, I tought "oh yes, indeed". It doesn't happen that often but when it does I find it impressive because I guess someone with theoretical music knowledge would be able to explain its structure and make sense of it on a conceptual level when to my modest ears it remains an intuition.

We also have a song by Les Rallizes Dénudés, a japanese group I got into after reading this small text about them that you cannot read without wanting to have a glimps of it. We have Peter Doherty who I don't think I have to introduce, I really like his stuff as a loner guitar-poet. We have Mariana de Moraes who I litterally know nothing about but heard one album a bit randomly and quite enjoyed (I guess by now you know I am have a sweet tooth for Brazilian music). And we end with Philip Cohran & the Artistic Heritage Ensemble who managed to make it twice into Sunday at Bob's with their majestic On the Beach.

Enjoy but only until 10h30 which is the check out time.

The receptionist

Playlist:

1. Horoya - Travessia – Abu Bakr II
2. Majid Bekkas - Bossoyo
3. Alla - Espérance
4. Matthew Stevens - Unconditional Love
5. Mtume - Kamili
6. Morgen - Of Dreams
7. Les Rallizes Dénudés - Kioku Ha Toi
8. Pete Doherty - Music When The Lights Go Out
9. Mariana de Moraes - Reposta
10. Philip Cohran & the Artistic Heritage Ensemble - On the Beach

https://lyricstranslate.com/fr/sans-exigences-without-demands.html

To the point of praying to God

But we all know He’s far too old

And no longer in command

https://lyricstranslate.com/fr/sans-exigences-without-demands.html

To the point of praying to God

But we all know He’s far too old

And no longer in command

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

Sunday at Bob's #5 - First Leaves

I planted some flat-leaf parsley seeds last week and yesterday they finally sticked their green faces out of the soil to my great satisfaction and feeling of well done job. I spent most of my week painting in the studio and I must say I am very pleased with the works produced, I haven't had such a prolific week in a while. However being caged with oil paint and terpentine for entire days results in head pain but nothing that would discourage me from the thrill that it is. It is only the fifth Sunday at Bob's and I can already see some patterns in the music I select with Bubba Thomas' spiritual jazz or Alessandra Leão's brasilian vibes (eventhough musically Brasil is a continent). Anyhow, here is today's playlist.

We start with a song taken from the album of the Al tarab Muscat ud Festival of the Sultanate of Oman in 2005. I am really pleased to own a copy of this, which seems rather rare and expensive but more importantly very varied and impressive music. I don't know much about Mamdoh El Gebaly neither do I know about Abadi Al Johar or other masters present on the compilation. But I have listened to some of their songs thousands of times and keep on going back to that treasure of an album.

It goes on with a extract from the soundtrack of Guy Ritchie's The Man From U.N.C.L.E by Daniel Pemberton (The Counselor and more recently Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse). I am globaly not particularly fond of that soundtrack however it made me discover some gems such as Roberta Flack's version of Compared to What or Che Vuole Questa Musica Stasera by Profumo di Donna.

Then we have the British progressive jazz rock band Trifle, I came accross their great album First Meeting through Strong Arm Steady's In Search Of Stoney Jackson where a few seconds of New Religion is played on a fast tempo. This song somehow reminds me of Cocaine by Universe though I am not sure why, probably because of its structure where the first half of the song contains sung lyrics and a large part is some trippy intrumentals that make you lose your mind.

Bubbha Thomas & The Lightmen Plus One's album Fancy Pants is an album I stumbled upon super randomly after hours of scrolling blogs and I have to admit I wasn't disapointed. It is a piece of work in which the musicians take their time to transport us in a lot of different areas of their talent. I find it extremely vast, interesting and I doubt I am done discovering new aspects of it as I listen to it more and more.

I have to thank Youtube's algorithm for the next one because I was playing cards at the reception with a good friend when this song started playing and charmed us both by it's smooth take on Bill Wither's classic. I will probably try to dig in more into Sivuca's music I haven't had the time this week but from the little I heard he seems like a very exciting artist.

Today's playlist features as well the brasilian-influenced jazz trio from Turin Gialma 3, the great Alessandra Leão who doesn't stop to surprise me since I first discovered her music, Mr. Airplane Man who I saw for the first time live last year at Butcher's Tears in south Amsterdam, Timmy Thomas who, like a lot of people, I first heard sampled on Drake's Hotline Bling and Momo Wandel Soumah's unbeatable saxophone whose album I bought as a kid on a street market in Essaouira, the Moroccan city that hosts every year a Gnaoua festival.

It's already the end of this week but very soon the beggining of a new one!
No smoking in the rooms and remember to check out before 10h30.

The receptionist

Playlist:

1. Mamdoh El Gebaly - Musiqa, Hawatir Misriyya, Maqam Rast
2. Daniel Pemberton - Out Of The Garage
3. Trifle - New Religion
4. Bubbha Thomas & The Lightmen Plus One - Blue Tip
5. Sivuca - Ain’t No Sunshine
6. Gialma 3 - Brushes Samba
7. Alessandra Leão - Partilha
8. Mr. Airplane Man - Don’t Know Why
9. Timmy Thomas - Take Care Of Home
10. Momo Wandel Soumah - Toko

Sunday at Bob's #4 - Home Is Where

I had already prepared a few playlists for the coming weeks when I decided last minute to come up with something new. I got a bunch of new plants in my room including a pancake plant (pilea peperomioides), a plant endemic of the Yunnan province of southeast China which got imported in Scandinavia in the 40s. It is a very beautiful plant with flat leaves that doesn't exceed 30cm in height and width. Sometimes I think the plants listen.

This week's playlist starts with an extract from the soundtrack of the 1974 movie The Conversation, composed by a young David Shire, Francis Ford Coppola's brother-in-law. It is a rather sober but very beautiful and tragic soundtrack that is almost solely composed of one piano. The main theme, which is a sort of slow ragtime, comes back every now and then with a delightful little twist to it.

We go on with a piece by the Pierre Nadeau Trio from Canada, discovered on the compilation Ready or Not: Deep Jazz Grooves from the CBC Radio Canada Archive 1967-1977 that I strongly recommend. Pierre Nadeau aka Le gros Pierre (1944-2004) was a Canadian pianist who was active since the 60s. If you understand french I can lead you to that small text about him. His album Extra-Ordinaire is currently available entirely on youtube, which is nice.

After that comes a freshly discovered artist I was very much impressed with, Philip Cohran and The Artistic Heritage Ensemble. Born in 1927 in Oxford, Mississipi, Philip Cohran was known for playing the trumpet in Sun Ra's Arkestra from 1951 to 1961 and it is something that I think you can hear in his own work as well. Early in his career, he invented an instrument he called the Frankiphone or the Space Harp, which is actually an electrified mbira or kalimba; he played it on some of Sun Ra's early albums. This instrument inspired Maurice White to use an electrified Kalimba in performance with Earth, Wind and Fire.^[4] Cohran said that he taught White and his brothers music in their youth, much as The Wailers were tutored by Joe Higgs. On the Beach features the Frankiphone on the title track, as well as a piece called "New Frankiphone Blues". (Wikipedia)

Écoute-moi camarade (Listen to me, comrade) is a song were the long forgotten Mohamed Mazouni, who can be rediscovered on the compilation Un dandy en exil (Algérie-France, 1969-1983), tries to convince a friend of his that the girl he is after is not worth it and doesn't care about him. It is a quite powerful song with a very catchy melody. Here is an interesting text about Mazouni and Agleria (both in French and English).

The playlist features also a track from Nat Brichall's Cosmic Language that is I think a contemporary echo to Philip Cohran, Sun Ra and other's spiritual Jazz. This week again the British intense Jazz scene is well represented apart from Birchall by as well Zara MacFarlane and the Portico Quartet. Very dancable songs by the almighty Wally Badarou and Seu Pereira & Coletivo 401 are also present.

Enjoy,

no late check out, still 10h30.

The receptionist

Playlist:

1. David Shire - Whatever Was Arranged
2. Pierre Nadeau Trio - Consuelo
3. Philip Cohran and The Artistic Heritage Ensemble - Frankiphone Blues
4. Sampa the Great - Healing
5. Mazouni - Écoute-moi camarade
6. Nat Birchall - Dervish
7. Zara McFarlane - Angie La La
8. Wally Badarou - One Day, Won’t Give It Away
9. Seu Pereira & Coletivo 401 - Tomara que Suba
10. Portico Quartet - Knee-Deep In the North Sea
 

Sunday at Bob's #3 - A Most Fruitless Week

Last week's fertile vibes got stopped by a cold. The sun took French leave and my guard was down, one hatless 4AM bycicle ride was all it took to nail my sorry ass in bed. Not enough however, to keep me away from the sunday check-in parade at the hostel reception. So here I am, and here is this week's playlist.

In today's selection we find music from the north of Africa, from different parts of Brasil and from Turkey mingling with each other. The introduction is by the touareg group Tinariwen from the berberophone city of Tessalit, in the north of Mali.

We go on with a track by the Amsterdam based american DJ Suzanne Kraft taken from an album I fancy a lot called Talk From Home. It is an intimate and beautiful experience which requires to be alone and to have some time in my opinion and that is why you won't hear played fully at the reception.

As promised last week, I included some of the priceless brasilian discoveries I have made recently, starting with a magnificent album called Samba do Absurdo inspired by Albert Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus (1942). In the essay Camus introduces his philosophy of the absurd. He states that once we face the realisation of the meaningless of life, it's absurdity, we have two choices: suicide or living the absurd life. Here is a link to a small article that talks about that piece by Juçara Marçal, Gui Amabis and Rodrigo Campos better than me.

Comes right after, another fresh discovery as well from Brasil: Julio Secchin. What a candy of an album, absolute gem if you ask me. From what I got, once again thanks to Google translation tool, it is an album inspired by the Carnival of Rio. However I won't adventure myself in further relative informations relying only on a translating machine I cannot trust a hundred percent.

We enter then an peculiar area of French music, a place where artists borrow openly to Brasilian repertoir. There are countless examples of French songs that are almost direct translations from Brasilian ones. Here is a list. La Rua Madureira is a song by Nino Ferrer that is about a love story broken in a Caravelle crash. Madureira is a poor but very much alive neighbourhood of the north of Rio, the Caravelle airplane was the pride of France's industry at the time the song was recorded. The melody is suspected to be taken from Antonio Carlo Jobim's Insesatez that is suspected to be taken from Chopin's Prélude n°4. It isn't a very famous piece from the singer of Mirza, Le Sud and Looking for You, but in my opinion it is most definitely one of his most powerful.

The playlist features also a track by Anouar Brahem, a very important oud player about who I will probably write more on this blog in the coming weeks. Joachim Kuhn's groundbreaking trio that manages to addition gnaoua music and jazz in a way that lift them both up and makes my heart do backflips. The Sahara version of Neil Young's Dead Man soundtrack, by Ahmoudou Madassane, an album that is worth the detour. 

It ends with two Turkish songs: Cemalim interpreted by Erkin Koray, a song about a woman named Şerife in Ürgüp who married a wealthy man liked by almost everyone called Cemal. But after a couple of years, he was killed in a treacherous attack. His death saddened everyone in town and she was left alone with her son(source). And Anlatamam Derdimi Dertsiz İnsana by Aşık Veysel (Aşık is Turkish for Ashik, a traditional musician and troubadour) which a Turkish friend had the infinite kindness to translate to me as I can’t talk about my troubles to the people who are not troubled.

That's it for this week!

Enjoy
and don't forget, check out time is 10h30.

The receptionist

Playlist:

1. Tinariwen - Intro Flute Fog Edaghan
2. Suzanne Kraft - Never Heated
3. Juçara Marçal/Gui Amabis/Rodrigo Campos - Absurdo 5
4. Julio Secchin - Festa de Adeus
5. Nino Ferrer - La rua Madureira
6. Guerrinha - Gazebo
7. Anouar Brahem, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette & Django Bates - Bahia
8. Joachim Kuhn, Majid Bekkas, Ramon Lopez - Enjoy
9. Ahmoudou Madassane - Zerzura Theme II
10. Erkin Koray - Cemalım
11. Aşık Veysel - Anlatamam Derdimi Dertsiz İnsana

Sunday at Bob's #2 Walking the Blues (because this is it, boy)

Shit has been done this week. I downloaded some sort of a mixing program that I can use to make the transition between one track to the other smoother. Although I am more interested in making playlists rather than DJ mixes it is interesting to try to make sense of the order of the songs and how they influence the listening experience as a whole.

I discovered a lot of music this week, especially from Brasil which seems to be a place with an extremely vivid and wide musical spectrum. You will hear more about it next week.

Today's selection starts with an extract from Clint Eastwood's 2003 Piano Blues. Dave Brubeck talks a bit about the blues, sitting in front of his piano in what looks like his basement. He then plays an outstanding version of the tribute to Audrey Hepburn dating back to 1954 with his quartet.

The German experimental, ambient and electronic musician Hans-Joachim Roedelius takes over with the floating Mein Freund Farouk from his 1981 album Wenn Der Südwind Weht.

One of this week's discoveries comes after. The little amount of information I have about this exciting musician and his band are translated on Google from portuguese so I am walking on eggs. Passarinho was born in Recife were he started playing the drums at age 14. He played in many bands since until he formed his own, Passarinho and the Brega Sound System and released a first EP in 2018. The track I chose to play is from their latest project called Cartas.

The rest of the selection includes music from the boiling UK jazz scene with Moses Boyd and Nubya Garcia's exciting vibes. Ya Bismillah from Mammane Sani, a musician from Nigeria who had initially released his album on cassette in the late 70's at only one hundred copies. Thanks to Christopher Kirkley from Sahel sounds who stumbled upon it while researching the musical archives of the musée national Boubou-Hama in Niamey, we are able to listen to it today.

This trip ends with the immortal Champion Jack Dupree's Strollin'. I encountered Jack Dupree's music at the time when my dad lived above a music shop and I would spend my sundays listening to albums which covers attracted me. I carried him with me ever since. Because this is it, boy.

Enjoy,
check out time is still 10h30.

The receptionist

PS: Today's illustration was made by Jack Bushnell, big up Jack!

Playlist:

1. Dave Bruckeck - Audrey (from Piano Blues 2003)
2. Roedelius - Mein Freund Farouk
3. Passarinho & O Sistema Brega de Som - Oferendas
4. Moses Boyd - Rye Lane Shuffle
5. Nubya Garcia - Fly Free
6. Mamman Sani - Ya Bismillah
7. Il Guardiano del Faro - Domani
8. DJ Koze - Music On My Teeth
9. Champion Jack Dupree - Strollin’

Sunday at Bob's #1 – Well Deserved Rest

Rough week it has been. Recovering from Kingsday took seven days, but the seventh day I rested and assembled some tunes I like while checking in tourists from allover the world coming to visit the Amsterdame.

The introduction is a Bob's exclusive and was composed and performed by Jack Bushnell and Tom Gwinett live at the reception.

Later in the playlist is a very beautiful song by Mustapha Bakbou. Born in 1954 in Marrakesh where his father, maâlem El Ayachi Baqbou introduced him to the tagnaouite art at a very young age. Known for his fruitful fusion with international musicians such as Pat Metheny, Louis Bertignac or Eric Legnini. For the curious here is a link to an interesting text about him and his band Jil Jilala. It is a track I listen to often while cycling between the trees around Sloterplas.
Bill Withers needs no introduction, it is always honey in the ears.

After that the four sisters of ESG (Emerald, Sapphire & Gold) let you know that you stopped making sense. Their album Come Away with ESG, reissued in 2018 is often played on pleasant shifts.

In today's playlist also appears 1000 Kings, with the almighty King Shabaka Hutchings that I had the immense honor of seeing at the Paradiso a few weeks back, along with his band The Comet is Coming. Selda Bağcan that I discovered through the Amsterdam Turkish band Altin Gün's interviews. And the Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou who are singing to the power of love against the world's most hostile attacks, stumbled upon on The Lost Tapes from Africa. Amongst other.

Enjoy,
check out time is 10h30

The receptionist

Playlist:

1. Jack Bushnell & Tom Gwinett - Intro (The Check In Tune)
2. Bakbou Mustafa - Untitled
3. Bill Withers - Ruby Lee
4. 1000 Kings - Kind of Fuji
5. ESG - You Make No Sense
6. Chris Potter / James Francies / Eric Harland - Koutomé
7. Selda Bağcan - Altın Kafes
8. Egberto Gismonti - Tributo a Wes Montgomery
9. Elza Soares - Coraçao do Mar/Mulher do Fim do Mundo
10. Leon Vynehall - Movements (Chapter III)

11. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou - Nous avons gagné