Sunday at Bob's #40 - Such Is Life: An Absence

Good morning,
Good afternoon,
Good night

And that whether

You are sleeping,
Watching cartoons,
Or getting back on track

From hangover

Some days are bright
Some days are dark
Some days the only thing to do

Is to listen to these tracks

Some days cloudy
Some days in mist
Some days made sunny

By your ears on my playlist

Some days we laugh
Some days we cry
Such is life

Such is life

Welcome back, once again
For your bi-weekly experience
Ten songs under one song

The story, the tale of an absence

The story of a melody
That made it in
Then made it out

For the sake of harmony

Harmonious but not flat

However, a tribute is made
Through the title
It is only a see you again, big guy

Not a long goodbye

Maybe in two weeks?
Regardless
Now is now

Le temps presse

Let us begin
Let us start
Let the music play its part

While I learn rhyming

It is Joshua Redman’s hand
That invites us first
And in all our thirst

We grab it, after all

We’re only human
And we know we can trust
The drums waiting

Around the corner, on the grass

Ready to hit
The coup de grâce
To pour us like we pour

Liquor through the point of non-retour

Caught
Delivered without ransom
To a mysterious voice

Mysterious but not random

Ungraspable
But not immaterial
Similar to fumes

Is the music of Alabaster Deplume

Sometimes dreaming of going away
Leaving friends
Knowing they’ll be okay

Other times doing it anyway

Sometimes looking back
Realising only once it vanished
The things we presently lack

And not coming back

Dancing to forget
Dancing to remember
Dancing to the songs

Of our ancestors

Dancing, dancing
Here is a great album to dance
It might even put you in a trance

The Imaginary Soundtrack to a Brazilian Western Movie

And from Brazil to Cap-Vert
An imaginary bridge
Very much there

Very much there

Kept safe by musicians
Guarded by musics
Preserved by guardians

In peculiar tunics

The Cachupa Psicadelicas
Let us cross
Like boss

And we cross back

All the way to LA
What can we say?
We would be so lonely

Without Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti

Then we have Jeff Parker
Right after
With a banger

From his album Suite for Max Brown

And then we have a song
Aman aman
Then we have a song

From a great duo

Amongst which is a friend of mine
And a fascinating human being
Just listen to them playing

Yet another bridge

Towards the end you can hear
The guitar switching
To this caracteristic rythm

And the oud following

What a thrill

It only made sense
To pursue this quest
And to enhance

To re-invite an old guest

Aşık Veysel
We heard him here before
We wanted to hear some more

And to close this circle

Without taking a risk
We have the giant Kyria Politissa
And her Den me toumbaris

And Spyros, with his bouzouki!

Opa! Dig those sweet fingers playing the bouzouki!
Gia sou, Spyro, with your bouzouki, gia sou!*

I will stop rhyming for a second
To urge you with serious
To go and purchase this album with its super interesting booklet.

You won’t regret

The last song is a bonus track
Sent to me by a dear friend
Of someone we talked about a while back

Mohamed Lamouri

We talked about him playing
In Paris’ subway
And a friend hearing him

On his way to school, as a kid, everyday

This very friend saw him again
And had the reflex
Of recording a piece

Of music in context

This is it for today
I hope you enjoyed
The music, the rhymes the playlist

Check out time remains 10h30
The receptionist

*Marika Politissa - All Parts Dark. Released by Olvido Records and Mississippi Records in 2020
OLV-009 / MRI-124. English Translations by Tony Klein

Playlist:

1. Joshua Redman - Mantra #5
2. Alabaster Deplume - Going Away/The Lucky Ones
3. Camarão - Camarão No Oriente
4. Cachupa Psicadelica - Ca Mistid Mentira
5. Ariel Pink - Life In La
6. Jeff Parker - Fusion Swirl
7. dahaW ⅃ꓘ - 1st is 0
8. Aşık Veysel - Sazım
9. Marika Politissa - Den me toumbaris
10. Mohamed Lamouri - Subway Recording

Sunday at Bob's #39 - Twenty Twenty

Hello everybody and welcome back
Before anything, happy new year
May this one be better
May it provide for what the last one lacked

As we close another cycle
We ask the next one to bring us plenty
Plenty of tools to figure out whatever happened
In twenty twenty

So you see, we are back with poetry

At least rhymes
We do it gladly
Or we try
To pass the time

Anyhow
Let us begin
Open your eyes
Turn off your phones

Sit back now
Breath out, breath in
Then close your eyes
I’m just kidding

Here is the playlist

You should know our first guest
In here he flies first class
He sure is amongst the best
It is Majid Bekkas
With his Magic Spirit Quartet

They do us the honour
With a classic from the Gnaouas
We did hear once here before
Played by Maalem Mahmoud Guinia
Bania

With Majid, there is a twist

We are used to his jazz collaborations
We know them well
Regardless
It is always with the same fascination
That we press play
That we play press

Then comes a band
Whose beautiful story
I told times and times again
At the reception

Elia y Elizabeth

It was a succesful band
But very briefly
Between 1972 and 1973
Intense in passion

The band came to an end
Alledgedly
As I understand
For them to pursue their studies

A lesson

We go on with Sharpshooters
Discovered while watching The Wire
Still haven’t recovered
From such fire fired

Their album reminds of a song
Written by Claude MC
Talking about the fusion
That gave birth to such beauty

That is rap

Si le Jazz excèle
Le rap en est l’étincelle
Qui flambe les modes, qui sont toujours
À temps partiel

We enter the blurry zone
Of today’s playlist
Magic monsters and furry bones
In a foggy mist

That is how I see Blake Leyh’s Dreadfish

I have no clue what it refers to
It’s like a reggae song that never begins
Like a hairy snake that never ends
With no head and to tail too

On its back we travel
For around eight minutes
Towards the next musical panel
That nothing could disrupt

They are more than two tousands and I only see these two

The rain merged them, it seems
One another
While one of the best rappers
Reminds us that even the deads once were toddlers

What a gem
A few drops suffice
Of Lino’s rhymes
And we are twenty again

J’ai fait un cauchemar j’ai dû rêver que j’avais du taf

Is what you could hear if you could
dig the underground of a painting
Under the ground under the building
Under the castle of the King

Hence its follower
A song from Le Roi et L’oiseau
Mellow rêveur but bitter
Mains vers le bas, yeux vers le haut

Walking in circles

In his hand a flower
In his mind a struggle
In her arms a mumble
On their heads a bird

On the bird a castle
One tousand and one rumors
As many are possible
Sang beautifully by Peggy Seeger

What a timber!

In one the the first posts here
I said about Bill Withers
His voice is like honey to the ears
And so is hers

A very good friend of mine
Introduced me to Vincent Dumestre
And not a day goes by
Without my being thankful

It is beautiful

Though a vast repertoire
Brings joy at first
Excitement then, then désespoir
The opposite of unsatisfied thirst

How long will it take
To listen to it all? To have a complete view?
But you can’t have your cake
And it eat too

And that’s the truth

The last bit of our journey is folk
And like some folk that be
It has its own mouth to talk
Mine is not necessary

But please, before closing
Look up the story
Of The Shoals of Herring
You might even find a old show by the BBC

About it

Another cycle is closed
Time to release the tension
Time to sort out the last details
And close the reception

Not indefinitely
I will see you again for another playlist
Check out time is still 10h30
The receptionist

Playlist:

1. Majid Bekkas - Bania
2. Elia y Elizabeth - Alegría
3. Sharpshooters - Hot Buttered Rum
4. Blake Leyh - Dreadfish
5. Jeff Beal - Distance Myself
6. Ärsenik/J.P. - Dans ma ruche
7. Stanislaw Wislocki/L'orchestre symphonique de la radio et de la télévision polonaise - La bergère et le ramoneur
8. Peggy Seeger - When I Was Single
9. Vincent Dumestre/Le Poème Harmonique - Passacalle, La Folie
10. Blaze Foley - Election Day
11. Tom Rush - Urge For Going
12. Ewan McColl & Peggy Seeger - The Shoals of Herring

Sunday at Bob's #38 - A selection of Estonian folk music (by Johan Haldna)

 

A selection of Estonian folk music. We’re starting off with some choir music, the first three tracks, which every Estonian will tell you is a crucial part of our (folk) culture. We have these really big song festivals every 5 years, in 2019 there were all together 30 000 singers from different choirs, and I’d say that the root of this tradition is both in Protestant religious music and more common, almost quotidian, folk songs.

Mu süda ärka üles is a Christian choral song in Estonian and by an Estonian composer which is now quite well-known in Estonia. I bring this origin out because it marks an important change, Kreek composed at a time (late 19^th century) when church texts and songs were increasingly translated into Estonian (although under Russian rule, Estonia was mostly Protestant at the time). The change here is that Kreek used an Estonian text to begin with. For me this marks a certain religiousness inherent in Estonian folk music, a sense of holiness if you will, which nevertheless didn’t make Estonia more Christian (even now we are one of the most atheist countries in Europe).

Muusika is much more recent (2008) and is also sung at these big song festivals that I mentioned. Hearing it there is really something, with all the people singing.

Then we have Kust tunnen oma kodu which is more of a mix of choral and folk, here you can hear the emblematic regilaul, where a lead singer sings a line which is repeated by the choir or audience. Nevertheless it is an arranged piece, a kind of choir piece that makes use of a folk form and folk text.

Ты святая Варвара is in Russian and I’m pretty sure the band is from Smolensk, Russia as well. I think it’s a beautiful song, almost like a dirge, and in my eyes there is this kind of specific sadness in it that belongs to Russian Orthodoxy. Not that I could describe it or pin it down to anything.

Then we have Ehted kadunud which is a kind of contemporary interpretation of a folk text. The singer tells a story of going down to the creek or spring to wash herself, she takes off her necklace and ring and other valuables, but then a goose and sparrow come and take her things away. The girl runs back home crying and her mother says not to worry, that once a merchant comes by, she will get a new ring and neklace and all. A very undramatic story I’d say. But I think this is what I meant that folk songs are almost quotidian.

Une meeles is similar to the previous one, also a contemporary interpretation of a folk text. This time the text is a lullaby. Maarja Nuut is perhaps also the most well-known contemporary artist working with folk music in Estonia, I really recommend her whole album Muunduja.

Next up we have the band Collage, a gem from Soviet times. I really have no idea why they were allowed to do their thing in the 60s and 70s when all art had to be strictly social realism. Nevertheless I’m grateful they were. Collage started off as a school project between students in the Conservatorium in Tallinn (now the Estonian Music and Theatre Academy). In the beginning they did kind of modern interpretations of Bach and some other baroque music, that changed in the late 60s when Aarne Vahuri became the leader of the band, then they turned to folk texts, and these arrangements are the ones I put in the mix. Really unique stuff. Apparently also very difficult techincally, but I don’t know much about that.

Now we have Puuluup, which isn’t really connected to traditional folk music that much, but there is some kind of folkish feel to it still. The fact that the band is just two weird guys playing weird instruments I think relfects this freedom in folk music to do whatever you want, also to sing about whatever you want.

Between them Valgõ jänes by Zetod, a funky folk arrangement. The song is in Seto, a dialect in Southern Estonia that has a strong independent cultural identity which is also reflected in the band name.

Then we have a Japanese/Estonian collaboration. Pastacas is one half of Puuluup and Tenniscoats is a Japanese duo.

Kiigel kartlik by Duo Ruut. This is some really new stuff, and mostly I put this song here because Duo Ruut is something to keep an eye on. The duo is really young (both of them are 20 I think) and they’re putting up such great stuff already.

Next up Legendaarne lend by Maria Peterson & Eva Eensaar. This is something that my mom used to listen to when I was young, and it only came back to me a couple months ago. They only ever let out 1 album of which half the tracks aren’t uploaded anywhere. I’ll try to rip the CD that my mom has when I go back there, maybe I can do the world a favor.

Then we have Muuseas by Vaiko Eplik and Andres Ehin. Spoken word, the poem is by Ehin and read by him. I guess Eplik made the instrumental, otherwise he mostly makes indie music, some good stuff too.

And the big guy for the end. Arvo Pärt. Really a towering figure over all Estonian music. His music isn’t really folk but I just had to put in something from him. The guy is a saint, turned 85 this year, even the Dutch classical radio had a special on him. Pärt: The world suffers because everyone wants to change it. Changing the world is agression.

 

Playlist:

1. Cyrillus Kreek - Mu süda ärka üles (Eesti filharmoonia kammerkoor)

2. Pärt Uusberg - Muusika (Head Ööd, Vend)

3. Veljo Tormis - Kust tunnen kodu (ETV tütarlastekoor)

4. Ансамбль "Лик" - Ты святая Варвара (russian)

5. Unejogi - Ehted kadunud

6. Maarja Nuut - Une meeles

7. Collage - Kutse õitsile

8. Collage - Kadriko

9. Collage - Suur tamm

10. Puuluup - Puhja tuulik

11. Zetod - Valgõ jänes

12. Puuluup - Heinakõrs

13. Pastacas & Tenniscoats - Pihlaja (japanese/estonian)

14. Duo Ruut - Kiigel Kartlik

15. Maria Peterson, Eva Eensaar - Legendaarne lend

16. Vaiko Eplik, Andres Ehin - Muuseas

17. Arvo Pärt - Summa for strings

 

Sunday at Bob's #37 - Out of Rhymes

Hello dear poetry afficionados, I hope you are well as we enter another winter. I hope you are comfortably sitting and ready for another episode, for another Sunday at Bob’s. I will begin by saying that I noticed our ratings sky-rocketing since I started rhyming, and I am amazed. I don’t know if poetry has anything to do with it or if it is a simple coincidence, but since the challenge spiced up my bi-weekly sit down with myself and you, I think I will go on with this format as often as I can. Blogspot also allows me to see our audience is expanding geographically and I warmly salute everyone listening from Czech Republic and our new friends from Massilia, as well as everyone in Italy, the US, Belgium, Austria, hoping you guys are not just people I already knew with new VPN’s.

As you noticed by now, today’s post won’t be rhyming but should be interesting nonetheless. We have beautiful things this week. So let’s not waste time.

We begin with the great Ornella Vanoni, mostly known (based on YouTube views count) for her song L’appuntamento (the rendez-vous?) which appeared as opening title for the 2004 movie Ocean’s Twelve. And that’s how I know about it, I won’t lie. Oh! I would have been delighted if that encounter had taken place in a village celebration (like the frog festival not far from Montegiovi in Tuscany, I have the T-Shirt and it’s not for sell, no need to bid) or in a rusty vinyl shop of an even rustier city. But well, the encounter was made a boring evening with an even more boring bag of chips watching Mr. Clooney and Mr. Pitt rob some casinos. At least I met Ornella didn’t I?

I don’t remember how Rosa Zaragoza ended up on my computer and I should probably let you know right now it is the case of most musicians in today’s playlist. It has been a few months now that I lost those precious 16 hours a week with nothing else to do but look for music. What I do now is that when I enter my atelier, I press play on the first radio show that pops up (amongst the ones I bookmarked) and let it flow for as long as I work. I write down what sticks out and try to explore it when I have a bit of time and internet at my disposal (which is still rather rare). Why I am telling you this is because I realized it changed completely my way of approaching music. When I used to make playlists attempting to draw links between two cultures or different periods of time, I now zoom in by default and look almost only at individuals. Rosa Zaragoza is one of them. The fact I read less about what I listen to makes the act of listening quite different. And I hadn’t expected that because, when it comes to painting and my approach towards the medium I always thought it was supposed to be able to stand without words. Not that words are useless but they are something else than painting. The same way music is something else than painting. It could be interesting to talk about a painting in music, to play about a painting, but the painting shouldn’t need it in order to be understood, or appreciated. Shouldn’t it?

It is a very complex topic but crucial in my opinion. And yes or no cannot be valid answers. I have started to follow Medieval Art history classes as a listener at University precisely because I wanted to know what was behind the extraordinarily painted wooden pannels at the ground floor of the Rijksmuseum of Amsterdam. They appeared as having their own vocabulary, they look like books written with images, like songs played with paint, and I obviously lacked knowledge of that language. So you see, I can no longer stand behind the statement saying that paintings don’t need words to stand, but I cannot either state the opposite, can I?

Sorry Rosa, you were singing.

I reckon Latcho Drom is a film, I haven’t watched it yet, I just have the soundtrack on me and listen to it once in a while. It has that Django Rheinardt vibe which is always welcome in the studio. I read once the story of the film and I am ashamed to present you the music before having watched it. I might come back to it once I have.

N’golas Ritmos’ Muxima I have stumbled upon in a beautiful compilation of Créoles songs (Odyssée - Voyager autrement en musique). I think I purchased it out of curiosity, because it was one of the only records I found featuring the great Euphene Cooper, who we had the pleasure of hearing last time. There is something intimate about the way it was recorded, but also a sniper precision in the melody, as to hit precisely where it kills. You know, when an artist is so good they make it look easy, they carelessly execute the exact movement needed, while displaying calm on the verge of indifference at the same time as full control over their medium?

The AMAN Folk Ensemble is an old companion now. I have one album I cherish. It is the kind of album I don’t think I was ever able to play in its entirety when I worked at the reception, there would always be someone requesting, demanding in fact, that I change for something more conventional. I don’t think I have to expand too much on this music that is in the lines of music we heard here many times without never, I hope, get tired of.

We go on with the end song of the famous Greek TV show Eisai to tairi mou (you are my soulmate), Giannis Poulopoulos’ Aftoi Pou Menoun Ki Aftoi Pou Fevgoun (those who stay and those who leave). I almost shed a tear at the end of this episode. I guess I am a bit biased to be talking about it. I wonder how it sounds to someone who hasn’t watched the show. I think I would like it regardless.

Then we have a song I am puzzled by. It really pulls some child strings, and I wonder if it isn’t a child’s song. It very well might be. If Spanish was my mother tongue I wonder if I would enjoy it the same way I do now. I remember when I was a kid I had an album of Thelonious Monk and the only song I enjoyed was a song for kids (I don’t remember the name, most likely something like 1,2,3 or a,b,c). A few years back, I wanted to know more about jazz and so the first door I thought of opening was that one. I remembered how much I loved that song. So I gave it a shot and I must say it was the only song of the album I couldn’t stand. I found it very silly. Now when I listen to Eliseo Parra singing it reminds me that, everytime I run head down towards the mystic, the unexplainable, the uncounscious, there is always the silly awaiting in a corner to jump me and I am not always able to recognize this bastard.

Antoine Tomé, what an interesting discovery! Often I wonder why musicians of my generation tend to go for English as a singing/writing language. Besides the obvious fact that it expands considerably the audience, at least when it comes to writing, I think there is the fear of hearing one’s own voice. I am speculating here, although I did have this discussion many times. When someone sings in their mothertongue, there are no hiding places, all the flaws can be heard by that person, because it is a language they are completely familiar with. It is like talking. No one enjoys, at least the first time, to hear their voice on tape. Well I think that the use of English can be a shortcut towards satisfaction. Sometimes I hear grammar mistakes in the lyrics, but it doesn’t matter, or it matters less somehow. Often I have been told by musicians that they don’t consider themselves good writers and that writing in English simply made the task easier, the music in a way mattered most. But if it is easier, can it be because for a non-English-as-mothertongue speaker, the flaws are less visible? Anyway, another big topic but the reason I bring it up is because I feel like Antoine Tomé’s music is exactly what French speaking people are scared of sounding like if they would sing in French. And I must say, the first time I heard it I did find it a wee bit silly, but this feeling was quickly overcome. What an interesting discovery! I picked the song you are listening to because there is something Maître Gims-esque about it that I find amusing to analyse. As if French rap brought back confidence into the French language. After all Mc Solaar, Ekoué and others have probably been the best ambassadors of this language in the past thirty years. Imagine Maitre Gims singing À La Recherche De Ton Corps. Please do it.

It was some months back that I wrote a bit about music from Brittany. I didn’t mention Lina Bellard, I chose to keep her in my treasure safe a bit longer. Her music has this sort of timeless feeling I tried to express in poetry two weeks ago. She is probably one of the discoveries of the past years I cherish the most, and as such I am not sure I can write about her for very long. Maybe her music stands on its own, maybe it doesn’t need words. But if you happen to listen to her whole album you will hear that it does involve words. In a fascinating way.

We continue with A Grand Conversation on Napoleon. I am not gonna lie, I had put this song in my playlist folder mostly for its title, very cool title. But then I listened to it over and over and, eventhough I understand maybe ten percent of the lyrics, I very much enjoy it. I reckon it is about one of Napoleon’s adventures but what I find interesting is not so much the topic. It is the fact that it sounds to me like another kind of newspaper. I picture this being sung in a bar or on a village square as a way to bring the latest news. And if you have been following this blog for a while you know how intrigued I am by the different purposes music -art- can have. You also know how fascinated I am by the non-written traditions, heritages (for lack of better words) like the one of the Gnaouas or of the music from Epirus which I talked about a couple of times. The way to pass on a message without, or before the book. It can be through architecture, like Victor Hugo argues in his book Notre-Dame de Paris. It can be through music, through symbols or through paintings like in Epirus or in Lascaux. I guess the common aspect these allow is the share of instinct, the share of unexplained or explained differently, a certain fluidity the written language does not necessarily allow, or must do without.

I have to link these considerations to the objects left to us by the Celts starting the fifth century before Christ. Although they were in economic and political contact with Ancient Greece, they left no text. No text. How should we approach these object? How can we? Like we approach intrumental music? I don’t know but we are touching something very exciting.

When I pressed play on the latest release by Roots Magic, I immediatly recognized the Frankiphone Blues, one of my first loves in jazz land. We listened to it being played by Philip Cohran and The Artistic Heritage Ensemble here in one of the firsts posts on the blog. I thought I had to put it in this week! But then I thought why not go with another one? And so we have the great Devil Got My Woman, and we have nostalgia.

Another old companion is the very cool Portico Quartet. We missed you guys. I love the drums on that song. And we end with a very surprising album by the band N.K.E which I found litteraly no information about. Very chill album though.

That’s it for this week, I hope you had fun!

Dont forget to check out BEFORE 10h30!

The receptionist

 Playlist:

1. Ornella Vanoni - Quale Donna Vuoi Da Me
2. Rosa Zaragoza - Canción a Mi Muerte
3. Latcho Drom - Manoir de mes rêves
4. N’gola Ritmos - Muxima
5. AMAN Folk Ensemble - Kuperlika
6. Giannis Poulopoulos - Aftoi Pou Menoun Ki Aftoi Pou Fevgoun
7. Eliseo Parra - Nana del Roble
8. Antoine Tomé - À La Recherche De Ton Corps
9. Lina Bellard - Roshan (Roshan Rossi)
10. Tom Costello - A Grand Conversation on Napoleon
11.  Roots Magic - Devil Got My Woman
12. Portico Quartet - Paper Scissors Stone
13.  N.K.E - Raining Somewhere Else
 

Sunday at Bob's #36 - Evening Ode To The Night

Hello and welcome again
For yet another episode
For yet another hour
Of pleasure in music
Empty your head, empty your brain 

 

Let us begin
This evening ode
To the hours of full power
Half of the day, half of the week
Half of life, we imagine

We lose our chains at night
And witness explode
What was kept under cover
As long as the sun metallic
Had us on sight

So today, and just for you
We have a selection of songs that showed
Interest to be listened to in the obscure
Tender, enigmatic
Mystic night, with no light in dark blue

Here we go

Jordi Savall introduces us to the noble
Sound of Sephardic folk
Timeless treasure
For which I translated the lyrics
With the help of Google:

Sleep, sleep beautiful maiden
Sleep, sleep without craving and pain
It is your slave that you want so much
See you in a dream with great love.

Feel, my joy, to the sound of my guitar
Feel, angel, my ills on my face
Worth a little to look me in the face
If you don't look at me, you're going to kill me.

There are three years that my soul suffers
For you jewel my pretty lady
I don't sleep or night or day
Those who suffer from Anguisia the Guiya

We then travel all the way to Turkey

To enter the room, tiptoed

Observe wonderful creatures

Shadows cast on the wall's bricks

Let ourselves carried by the musique Soufie

The sound of a coin brings us back

People sang like wolfs howled

A bowl in the hand, a hand in the pocket, what a strange posture

Round metal on round ceramic

Round dance for one minute to the next track

Get off my ladder, don't make me shadow

Sing from Colombia, whose voices unload

Preserved secrets, untouched flowers

Tales of the Pacific

The Grupo Canalón de Timbiquí lets grow

 

For the second time here

The soft sound borrowed

To Zanmari Baré by our speakers

Enlighten our bi-weekly musical picnic

Maloya, it is always a thrill to hear

We enter night's exciting part and

For that we get on the road

To Liberia, to Kenya and their beautiful guitar players

Percussions, guitar and sticks

Is all they need to leave us us enchanted

Williamu Osale, Euphene Cooper, Grebo,

An Ashanti group and now Bounaly have us bestowed

Their sound so intimate it's like we're there

Hidden when they play we sneak a peak

And try not to forget before we go

The songs that link now and then

Metá Metá from a branch of river Amazon

With melodies as made from its water

Play the music unique

The songs that links us and them

And then of course jazz

With Max Roach and Mélanie de Biasio in person

For two last songs before it's over

And we return to our pathetic

Or very exciting everyday lifes

I am not gonna lie

Writing this article showed

My limits, I reckon the previous one was better

I reckon the next one will be less cryptic

Because I cant' over-try

At least I hope you enjoy the playlist

I am going back to civilian-mode

I see you in two weeks, sauf erreur

Check out before 10h30, don't be a dick

The receptionist

 

Playlist:

 

1. Jordi Savall - Durme, Hermosa Donzella
2. Nezih Uzel; Kudsi Erguner - Taksim makam ussak, ney, ussak ilâhî
3. Streichmusik Alder - Appenzeller-Zäuerli mit Talerschwingen
4. Canalon de Timbiqui - Quítate de Mi Escalera
5. Zanmari Baré - Lilet zoranze
6. Williamu Osale - Vijana Niwambie
7. Grebo - Kru Song with Guitar
8. Euphene Cooper - All For You
9. Ashanti Group - Ashanti: Percussion, Sticks, Guitar
10. Bounaly - Soko
11. Metá Metá - Man Feriman
12. Max Roach - The Drum Also Waltzes
13. Melanie de Biasio - Sweet Darling Pain
 

Sunday at Bob's #35 - Tambour de Ville

Hello everybody
And welcome back
Sit comfortably
Ears open, fingers cracked

For this post shall be
Unlike the others
In its entirety
Written with flowers

Once too many
Have I apologized
For delaying my duty
Disorganized

So for this time
I have decided
The article should rhyme
For it to be broadcasted

If it is the curse of lyricists
I pretend to write about, in admiration
To match meaning and aesthetics
In songs of their creation

Then, to be fully forgiven
I have been told by a witch
This blog shall endure the same
Or forever perish

Without further ado
And to shorten the torment
Let me present to you
Today’s playlist (fuck it)

We have Glenn Jones for the beggining
Because it is out of the question
To leave here without hearing
The Last Passenger Pigeon

After him you will hear or will have heard
Jean C. Roché and Pierre Palengat recording
A blackbird
Often mistaken with a starling

I shall take a break to congratulate
Myself. If I don’t who will?
For having found on the internet
This plaisir tranquille

We go on with William Penn
Oh! that story is good
If only it wasn’t such a pain
To tell it the way I should

Gods! I beg of you
Release me from this spell
And if there is anything I can do…
No? alright well

In June 1978
was held an exhibition
I heard it was great
At the Renwick Gallery of the National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithonian Institution

It was called The Harmonious Craft: American Musical Instruments
It included unique and esoteric handcrafted…
Musical instruments
With them, an album was made

From that album was taken
A song that never ceases to amaze
I listen to it every now and then
Reflections in a Plastic Vase

Il fait dimanche quand tu souris
And your smile I rob
What better tribute can there be
From something called Sunday at Bob

Il fait dimanche et tous les jours
Each and everytime you smile to me
C’est la revanche de l’amour
Is quoting a form of trickery?

Then we have the kind of song I live for
William Ferris documented
A musician from Leland and his guitar
Singing a love song he created

Sometimes Art only needs for understanding
Like a cake needs a mouth to be eaten
Eyes for watching, ears for hearing
Sometimes the rational brain is a burden

Is it because we need it to make things
That it wants to be part of their experience
That it wants to explain the feelings
Which it cannot taste in silence?

Let’s leave here
these considerations for now
For from the album Slither, Soar & Disappear
Is taken the next song and… wow

What an album
Josh Kimbrough
What an album
Bravo

Witch? Gods?
My mothertongue is not English
And I am runing out of words…
It might be tough to finish

No?
Sure?
No?
Sure...

Let’s see
With who the playlist continues
With Ikue Asazaki
And her heart ripping blues

Followed by an amazing
Though ended abruptly
Piece of bottle blowing
By Louis Dotson from Mississipi

Which itself is followed
By dancable music from Ellada
When it is so complicated to go abroad
How heart warming is Laika

Mi mou to malonete
You rascal you
Nous irons dancer tout l’été
To koritsatki mou

We stay in Greece the mystic and the jolly
With the intense and disturbing
Solo Tsifteteli
And Giorgos Mangas’ heavy breathing

The two next songs are the result
Of an endless analogy
Bothering me as an adult
Between Berber music of my childhood and music from Ethiopie*

The song Soussia
Refering to a Berber woman from the Sous region
Offers this particular enigma
For which I have no solution

It begins as a regular berber song
Pentatonic, inviting
Only to end in arabic fashion
In the manner of songs played at weddings

What to say about Mohamed Sulieman?
And the wonderful music of Sudan
I first heard with Abu Obaida Hassan
A most fascinating musician

To end on the same note as we started
And by the way this has been interesting
We finish with Jack Rose’s inspired
And beautiful guitar playing

I can’t believe this has been done
But that’s it for today’s playlist
Oh, and by 10h30 you should be gone
The receptionist

*pronounced in French

Playlist

1. Glenn Jones - The Last Passenger Pigeon
2. Jean C. Roché/Pierre Palengat - Merle noir
3. William Penn - Reflections in a Plastic Vase
4. Henri Salvador - Il fait dimanche
5. Leland Musician - Darlin' Why You Treat Me So?
6. Josh Kimbrough - Glowing Treetops
7. Ikue Asazaki - Ahagari
8. Louis Dotson - Bottle Blowing
9. Μυ μου το μαλονετε -
10. Giorgos Mangas - Solo Tsifteteli
11. Aster Aweke - Tchewata
12. Various Artists - Soussia
13. Mohamed Sulieman - Haatuff
14. Jack Rose - Tree In The Valley

Sunday at Bob's #34 - Corenwijn Souvenir

 Greetings the whole bunch of you and welcome back for another hour of musical experience and possible discoveries with Sunday at Bob’s! This week we have a combination of recent surprises and dusty songs from the past. It is recommended to listen to today’s menu in the swamps, in the company of mosquitoes, with a glass (a bottle?) of corenwijn, remembering sweet tasting days. Let’s get to it.

We begin with a magnificent composition from a recently released mind-blowing album that I am still exploring. It is an album that reminds me of the thoughts written months ago about another album: David Axelrod’s Earth Rot. Apart from the assemblage of jazz and contemporary music, they have in common a very thick and complex layer of content. While Earth Rot addressed climate change, anthropocentrism and more generally human’s impact on earth using various aspects of the old testament if I am not mistaken (I still don’t have internet as we speak, so I am indeed walking on eggs here, I hope you understand), Duval Timothy’s Help addresses issues as various and crucial as neocolonialism, the musical industry, history, memory and of course legacy using the words of Pharell Williams (on the fact that it is common for record labels to own the masters of the artists they sign) for instance. The track in question, Slave, appears to me as a sort of point of reference the whole album will keep on returning to (in French we say fil rouge) giving to the whole a remarkable consistency I dare to compare to the one of Earth Rot, although it is achieved differently.

I allowed myself an attempt to pursue with a recording that seems to share very little with the introducing piece. Sometimes you have to try things and with a little push from destiny they will later turn out to be a fertile ground to the flowers of reflection, or not. Time will tell. Regardless I let you enjoy fifty delicious seconds in the great company of Šunđo Sajam’s voice.

It has been exactly six years since I encountered Roza Eskenazi, after inquiring about Greek music to a recently met friend who told me about the treasures of Rembetika. She hasn’t left my mind nor my hard drive since then. What a voice. I had planned to expand a bit on her but I reckon there is a lot of information on the internet already. I will say that we can hear her giving a shout out to the oud player Agapios Tomboulis with whom she was performing nightly at the Taygetos club in Athens before touring with him in Albania, Egypt and Serbia. I will also say that one of her songs, Πρέζα όταν Πιείς (When You Take Heroin), was censored by Greek dictator Ioannis Metaxas, who I believe did not only censored Rembetika songs but also imposed certain topics (love, mostly) and prohibited others (drugs, crime etc.) in their writings. I read that in a text about Markos Vamvakaris, explaining that it sort of ended Rembetika as it was and gave birth to a softer version of it called Laika. This is from memory, I hope it isn’t too far from reality.

We go on with a very cool song by the great Mohamed Mazouni who we had the honour of hearing here before. He comes back with a song where a young woman is alone in the cold street, looking for a husband. Say no more, replies Mazouni, I am here for you. To which she refuses, laughing at him and being in all honesty a wee bit rude but always rather funny. Mazouni has a collection of songs like this one taken from his own experience of being an Algerian immigrant in France trying to make it. They are amongst those songs that make you smile, dance, and then think. In an interview, he talked about the fact that he sings in the French language he learned in the streets, the francarabe (frencharab) he calls it the français café (coffee French) which I never heard before but find very beautiful.

Ruba Shamshoum is a Palestinian musician, born and raised in Nazareth and currently living in Dublin. Her music plays with a combination of Eastern and Arabic elements, improvisation and jazz. She is honey to the ears.

We then have a little interlude taken from the very cool album To Feel Embraced, from Sparkle Division.

Originating from the Nile Valley in what is now South Sudan, Gordon Koang was born blind and began playing music from an early age, busking on the streets of Juba and producing his own self-released CD-R’s and cassettes, before becoming a crowd favourite and recording a series of singles and music videos celebrating South Sudan’s cultural wealth. His music went viral, spreading throughout the country, and Koang was invited to perform at everything from weddings and political rallies to church meetings and parties alike. His reputation quickly grew as the poet and homegrown hero of the Nuer people, sometimes called the « Michael Jackson of South Sudan ».
In 2013, while Koang was performing to expatriate Nuer communities in Australia, renewed conflict broke at home. He made a difficult and heartbreaking decision to not return to Sudan, applying to the Australian government for humanitarian protection. (source)
It is in that context that he released the magnificent album that is Unity from which is taken the song Asylum Seeker you hear today.

After that we enter a very smooth and dancable parenthesis of our playlist with the Orchestre Super Borgou de Parakou from Bénin and the immense Sorry Bamba from Mali. Sometimes I reckon there is no need to say much, everything is in what you hear. Some music seems to make so much sense as what it is you barely need a context or any predisposed taste. How can you not at the very least move your head when you hear Oh Claire? In a way it links with the reflections of C. King about music from Epirus (mentioned in an earlier post) speculating about a purpose of music after observing the fact musicians have a power over their audience, and music does influence mood, behavior. When it comes to the Orchestre and Sorry Bamba, there is no need to think, your body moves and you can simply observe the purpose unfolding regardless of your will. I am convinced aliens would dance.

We continue with the very beautiful Colette by Bembele Henri, who I discovered while researching the compilation I mentioned two weeks ago, Bulawayo Blue Yodel. It is followed by a Filipino song I have literaly zero info about. It is itself is followed by the immense Michael Hurley who probably needs no introduction. As doesn’t John Fahey.

We close with one of the funniest songs I have ever heard but nonetheless very cute Tant pis pour la rime, from Mireille. Too bad if it’s a crime, I don’t care for the rime, she says.

That will be all for today, I see you in two weeks and wish you a pleasant sunday.

If everyone checks out at 10h30 but no one hears them, do they get their deposits back?

The receptionist

Playlist:

1. Duval Timothy - 9
2. Šunđo Sajam - Sevdalinka: U Šeheru Kraj Bistra Vrbasa. Sevdalinka. (Bosnian Urban Song.) In The Town By The Clear Vrbas Stream.
3. Roza Eskenazi - Gazeli Sabach Sti Mavri Yi Chrosto Kormi
4. Mazouni - Je suis seul
5. Ruba Shamshoum - Randomness of Beauty Spots
6. Sparkle Division - You Go Girl!
7. Gordon Koang - Asylum Seeker
8. Orchestre Super Borgou de Parakou - Adiza Claire
9. Sorry Bamba - Porry
10. Bembele Henri - Colette
11. Poor immigrants - Mundo Ng Musika
12. Michael Hurley - The Portland Water
13. John Fahey - What The Sun Said
14. Mireille - Tant pis pour la rime

Sunday at Bob's #33 - More Stories

Hello everyone, welcome back for another fantastic hour with Sunday at Bob’s! I hope you guys had a great summer break if you had one. What a time to be alive, it seems the world is spinning faster than usual. We would love to think it is for the best. We would love to. I myself have moved in a place where I, once again since my time in Norway, have no wifi. I should be here for a couple of months at least so expect the coming articles to be less documented than they once were. They will probably contain more anecdotes, less quotes. My schedule this year will most likely be slightly more intense than in the past two years, so I might struggle to keep up the bi-monthly rythm. For that I apologize in advance once and for all (I got told recently I was too polite, I said sorry). But, I am trying to get more articles from magnificent people I meet who have knowledge about music I lack, in the hope of expanding the blog’s musical territory. That being said, let’s begin.

Sometimes, around this moment after the summer was consumed and real life is showing its nose again, we get a sense of the deadlinesque aspect of sunny days and an urge to accomplish all fun that was postponed. We continue listening to sunny music while cycling but with a nostagic after taste. It is in this spirit I tried to gather music for today’s playlist.

We start with music from a country that is still an enigma to me given its capacity to continuously provide for the best football players since the first world cup while having less than half the population of Switzerland, Uruguay. It is this mystery that made me click on the beautiful compilation Candombe Uruguay when it appeared on my screen. Lucky was I, Dino Gastón Ciarlo started singing through my speakers and Don Pascual never left me since.

Once upon a time, in the lobby of a youth hostel, a receptionist was looking for a way of playing music without the use of youtube suggestion’s flow that seems to always end in the same areas, and without losing to much time on his actual job either. He opened a youtube account and added songs he enjoyed in the « watch later » section. After a couple days the section had enough songs to cover his 8 hours shifts and more. Eventually the hostel acquired a spotify account and the « watch later » playlist was forgotten. Years later it still happens that he stumbles upon a song that once was in that playlist, put smiles on visitors faces and his own, was the soundtrack for good times and remained a souvenir for years. Letta Mbulu’s Normalizo is one of them.

I don’t remember how or when I heard Koop for the first time. Their album Waltz for Koop is amongst the easy-listening, easy-to-pick-when-I-don’t-know-what-to-listen-to records.

Iggy Pop, in a interview for some goofy trendy media that pops up on my facebook thread once in a while, mentioned Tropical Fuck Storm and I thank him for that. What an exciting band to listen to! I must link you to the clip of Braindrops, featured here today but also recommend you the album of the same name. It is amongst this kind of albums that take you in many unexpected places. After listening to a cool song, one usually checks out the album it is taken from with the (unconfessed?) hope to get more of the same, it is rare that the album manages to disapoint in good (in Switzerland we say décu en bien).

We enter the traditional Brasilian area of our playlist with the very cool Os Tincoãs. They are this kind of band from whose discography you can simply pick blindfolded and enjoy.

I would like to dedicate the next song to a very dear friend of mine who moved out of Amsterdam a few months ago. He is a great guitar player and we recorded a song together, a George Brassens song that means a lot for the both of us. Hopefully this song will be buried for ever, quite unlike Letta Mbulu’s. It was a very enriching experience nonetheless. I mention that because here we have Rodrigo Amarante’s take on another very dear song by the monument Brassens: La non-demande en mariage. A song where he is honoured to not propose to his girlfriend.
A French philosopher with whom I have less and less affinities used to talk a lot about how in philosophy, life is not separable from writings. He argued a genuine philosopher acts as he writes, there shouldn’t be no gap in between action and statement. Walk the walk, talk the talk. He wrote a couple biographies following that train of thought, comparing the life of the subjects, to their writings. The reason I talk about him is that I am always fascinated about how Brassens songs can be reflective of his own life. In songs like La non-demande en mariage, La mauvaise réputation or Le gorille one can find a look on life that already exists in his parcours. A bit as if you could transpose the famous saying used in the world of design since the Bauhaus: « form follows function » into the world of music, poetry, Art in general something like « work follows life », « oeuvre follows experience » for the lack of better formulation.

Now I realise I jumped over Lee Alfred’s very dancable Rockin’ Poppin’ Full Tilting, in my hurry. I would say it is a song that illustrates very well the first statement I made about sunny music with hidden nostalgy in it.

I must confess, I compiled this playlist weeks ago and I completely forgot where I got Tetty Kadi’s wonderful song from. It must have been a blog. Probably amongst the ones listed on the side. Nevertheless I reckon it makes a very beautiful and welcomed apparition in between music we are more used to in here.

We arrive in a folky time with the great Dave Bixby and his sun going down taken his inspiring Lost Songs Found, suggested to me by a dear friend a few months back.

We continue with a true UFO in terms of compilation. Who knew this existed? How can we stop listening to it now that its existence has been revealed? I personaly cannot. I wish I had internet right now to be able to expand on it without worrying about the facts. I urge you to purchase Bulawayo Blue Yodel and to dig more into it, it’s the best I can do for you.

And then we have the magnificent Bert Jansch, who we heard here before but really, there are these musicians who we would welcome over and over without ever being tired of them.

After him comes a duo very dear to me. They have been recommended to me by a recent friend who accepted to honor us of his contribution to this blog in the coming months. I won’t expand to much on Duo Ruut because I don’t know much and I hope we will get to know more very soon. I couldn’t insist enough on having a listen to their album Tuule sõnad though.

We finish with a fascinating song by PLOD, taken from Still In My Arms: Compiled by Bayu and Moopie. I am not sure what to add about it except the fact that I have been wanting to feature it here for months but never quite found the right spot for it.

That’s it for this week, I hope you enjoyed as much as I did, I see you in two weeks!

Check out time is precisely 30 minutes before 11h00.

The receptionist

Playlist:

1. Dino Gastón Ciarlo - Don Pascual
2. Letta Mbulu - Normalizo
3. Koop - Modal Mile
4. Tropical Fuck Storm - Braindrops
5. Lee Alfred - Rockin’ Poppin’ Full Tilting
6. Os Tincoas - Acará
7. Rodrigo Amarante - O Nao-Pedido de Casamento
8. Tetty Kadi - Ratapan Anak Tiri
9. Matthew Jeffries - Iwe Kusidio
10. Bert Jansch - Sylvie
11. Duo Ruut - Ema Haual
12. PLOD - Aptaxi