Leap In The Dark

It's not very often that my health problems interfere with my life, but this past week I had reason to rue them for the first time in a number of years. As a treat to celebrate our wedding anniversary I had purchased tickets for my wife and I to go and see one of our favourite performers when his tour stopped in Toronto Ontario for two nights. Unfortunately as the day drew nearer it became obvious there was no way my body was going to be able to stand up to two and half hour trip by train that it would take to get to Toronto. I put off the inevitable for as long as possible, but in the end I surrendered and we gave the tickets to a young couple we know who appreciated the music as much as we would have. I figured the only thing worse than not going, was not going and having the tickets laying around the house reminding me of the disappointment.

A part of me knew all along we wouldn't be making the trip, I've not been able to make a trip of that length since 2002, so how could I have thought now would be any different. I guess I had hopped that when the time came for us to make the trip somehow it could happen because it would have meant so much to us. You see, there's something about Xavier Rudd's music that I've connected to it on a personal level, in a way that I never have before to any musicians work. My wife summed it up best when she said, "he always seems to be able to articulate how I'm feeling about the state of the world with his music."

Rudd released his first CD, To Let, in 2002 and has since produced four more discs and toured the world extensively. The Australian born multi-instrumentalist's initial albums and tours saw him performing as a one man band. Sitting behind a stand holding his three Yidaki (an Australian Aboriginal instrument named for the hunter who not only discovered it but whose spirit now resides within them, its better know by the name Europeans have given it, didgeridoos) he would play either slide or regular guitar, keep the beat with a stomp box and small percussion instruments, play some harmonica, and of course sing. Over the course of the three discs that followed To Let; Solace, Food In The Belly, and White Moth; Rudd's music gradually became both more musically and thematically complex, a period of development that culminated in his most recent release, 2008's Dark Shades Of Blue.

When it had looked like I would be travelling down to Toronto to see Rudd in concert I contacted his Canadian publicist to see if I could set up an interview. Of course that fell by the wayside when the trip fell through, and I had to settle for fifteen minutes on the phone with him. It's a somewhat frustrating experience trying to engage a person in conversation when you know you're working against the clock as you have to keep curtailing topics in order to cover any ground at all. However fifteen minutes turned out to be plenty of time for us to talk about the current tour, Dark Shades Of Blue, his music in general, and even touch upon his wife's (Marci Lutken-Rudd) art that served as cover for Dark Shades Of Blue.

A conversation like this, if you're lucky, gives you a series of glimpses into a artist's soul and from that you try and piece together a picture of the person behind the music you've been listening to and appreciating. With Rudd, something you quickly realize is there is no separating the man from the music, for as one changes the other follows. I had started off by asking him whether the harder edge that can be heard on Dark Shades Of Blue was indicative of the direction his music was going in. I had noticed over the course of his two previous recordings that each had become progressively edgier and this one had gone even further down that road.

Xavier's answer took me by surprise, because it's not too often your going to find a musician who is willing to admit, "I don't think too much of where the music comes from it's just something that happens." Now lest anyone thing he's saying he doesn't think about his music, he's talking about inspiration here, not the music itself. You see the music he's working on now has moved in a completely different direction from what was on Dark Shades of Blue - in fact he described it as "Light and bubbly, and much brighter" Part of that he attributed to two South African percussionists he just started working with who have brought a different perspective into the mix. The other thing though is that he also sees Dark Shades of Blue as being the culmination of a journey that he had begun even before the release of his first disc.

"I was going through a really profound time and this (Dark Shades Of Blue) was a more personal album than any of the others." He continued by saying that after ten years of being in the music business he had felt like he needed to take time for self-reflection which made the disc much more introspective than anything previous. "I needed to go into the dark rooms inside myself and clean off some of the dusty shelves and this was the result."

Now, in case your worried that this sounds like a bunch of self indulgent twaddle, you only have to listen to the disc once to know that the last thing this guy is going to do is engage in a fit of public naval gazing. Sure he might have been re-evaluating where he was at the time, but the material has universal appeal. If you've ever spent anytime looking inward you're sure to be able to identify with a great deal of what's being expressed on the recording. Anyway, if you were at all worried about him getting overtly serious, don't be. Rudd has to have one of the most irrepressible spirits going - it may have feeling the weight of working nearly non-stop for ten years while working on Dark Shades Of Blue but now...

"I'm coming down the other side of the mountain on two wheels" is how he described it. "What I'm doing now is not only brighter and lighter, its also sweet and spicy, full of life. Having the two new percussionists cross my path right now has been great. Before setting out on this part of the tour I had taken six months off, and that was the longest break I had taken in ten years from either touring or recording and so it really feels like something fresh is happening."

That might have sounded silly or funny coming out of someone else's mouth, but there's something about his excitement and sincerity that evoked an image in in my mind's eye of him popping a wheelie at the top of a mountain and riding down on two wheels in the bright sunshine of a new morning.

If you look back to when I was talking about the instruments Rudd plays, I've mentioned an aboriginal one called the Yidaki. It was Rudd who told me the story of the instrument being named for the person who discovered it and also asked that I refer to it by it's proper name. Aside from the fact that he plays an Aboriginal instrument, he has featured both Native Canadian (Marci is a Canadian) and Australian singers and musicians on a couple of occasions on his discs, and some of his songs have been about their circumstances. So I was interested in finding out if his song writing had been influenced by either Native Canadians or Australians.

It turns out the influence is a lot more direct than I thought as he is of Aboriginal descent through his father's family. Now I've met more then my fair share of folk who are something like 1/32 native blood who try and make out that it gives them some sort of special connection to creation that makes them superior to the rest of us. What I heard in Xavier Rudd's voice, first when he talked about Yidakis - asking that I make sure to call them by their proper name in this article - and then again when he talked about the cultural inheritance passed down to him through his father - was respect. Respect for how they give voice to the spirit of their country and for part he plays in letting that voice be heard through his music.

One of the ways he lets that voice be heard is through touring and Rudd tours a lot. Part of that is of course because he's from Australia and if he wants people elsewhere to listen to his music he has to spend time in North America and Europe. With the music industry it's very much a case of if you're out of sight, you're out of mind. However, when I asked him about the difficulties involved with having to be out on the road so much he simply said: "I know a lot of people would give anything to be in the position I'm in. I feel blessed to be doing this and touring is a part of it all". Naturally that led me to asking him about touring and performing...

"A concert is like a ceremony", he said, "people come to the shows to celebrate the good stuff in their lives and use it as an opportunity to let go. All the energy they produce I channel and give it back to them so that it becomes a real exchange between us. It's a very powerful situation that shouldn't be taken for granted by looking on it as only an opportunity for making money, which given the nature of this industry is something that happens far too often." (The tickets I bought for the Toronto show were the most expensive at $32.00 each. Compare that to the close to the $100.00 your liable to pay for anyone else and you really begin to appreciate his commitment to keeping his music accessible to as many people as possible.)

My time was running out and I'd already dropped a couple of questions I had wanted to ask Xavier by the time we got to this point. I had been really intrigued by the artwork his wife Marci had contributed for the cover of Dark Shades Of Blue so I quickly raised the topic of her work and any interconnection there might be between their two fields. While they don't work at the same time there's still a connection between their work according to Xavier.

"Her artwork was important during this time because of what it meant in regards to our journey together and she selected the piece that was used for the cover." Unfortunately we didn't really have time to explore the question of Marci's art work much more than both Xavier and I to agreeing on how wonderful it is and for him to add, "While we don't directly inspire each other there is a connection between our work because of the energy we both bring to what we do and how its part of us."

So then there was only time to ask what was up and coming for Xavier Rudd and to learn that he was going into the studio in October with the two percussionists from South Africa, who are currently on tour with him, and he's feeling incredibly rejuvenated and "ready to be busy".

Fifteen minutes isn't very long to spend talking to anybody, and you sure won't get to know them intimately in that time. However after spending fifteen minutes on the phone with Xavier Rudd I feel like I have a clearer image of the man responsible for creating the music that has moved me more than anybody else's in the past five years. He's touring across Canada and the US for the rest of the summer - check his web site for the remaining dates - and if you get a chance to check him out do so. Only, do me a favour and don't tell me about it, because I really don't want to know what I missed out on.

Posted by Richard Marcus at 12:05 PM | Permalink

Anyone who has listened to any amount of music from Africa will quickly notice the different flavours it acquires dependant on the region it's from. Once you have become familiar with the characteristics of a region's music, it becomes easy to identify where a performer hails from simply by listening to them play. Although that has to be qualified with the proviso that the person plays music that has at least been influenced by the music from that region. If they've succumbed to becoming a part of the great melting pot that is popular culture that's a different story, but for the most part, no matter what genre they're ostensibly supposed to be playing, you can usually pick up some clues as to which part of the continent they come from.

While a great deal of the music we're hearing these days is coming from the North West of Africa and the Sub Saharan region, the region which has been most consistent over the years in producing music that has reached beyond its borders has been Southern Africa, and specifically South Africa. Even during the days when the country was an international pariah due to minority rule and apartheid, the music of South Africa was making itself heard. Either through the efforts of ex-patriots like Hugh Masekela or foreigners like Paul Simon recording with local performers, we became familiar with many of the different traditions that colour South African music.

Ironically it seems like since the end of minority rule the amount of new music coming out of South Africa has slowed to a trickle. In the past few years, judging by the items I've been offered for review by most of the "world music" labels, all anybody seems to be interested in is what's happening up north. However that doesn't mean there isn't anything happening musically in South Africa, or that there isn't musical territory in that country yet to be discovered. A fact that's brought home by Lapeng Laka, the latest release from jazz guitarist Selaelo Selota now available on the Sony label.

This isn't the first recording that Selota has made that bears the influences of his home province of Limpopo or to be sung in the language of the sePedi people who live there. However for nearly the past decade he has been dedicating himself to establishing his reputation as a jazz player through study and performance. That Lapeng Laka is a return to the roots of his music is made clear through its meaning in the sePedi language -"in my house". However, like many other musicians who have begun to explore other genres of music, he's not simply content to play old tribal melodies on traditional instruments. Instead he's reached back to incorporate the traditional folk-tales of the region and its music into what he's been doing for the last number of years.

While it's all very well and good to play traditional tribal music on traditional instruments, by not allowing a culture to grow and expand it becomes stagnant. However it takes a delicate touch to manage something like this without completely ruining the original music. There have been some horrible examples of people merely sampling traditional music and welding it onto electobeat technology and making a mockery of what was once beautiful and sacred. However with a musician of the calibre and creativity of Selota, it's clear from the moment you listen to the first song on the disc that's not something you have to worry about in this case.

It's only fitting that the disc opens with the title song, "Lapeng Laka", as it opens the door to the "house" of music that Selota has built for us to listen to. His guitar is the foundation for the rest of the house, and it has all the smoothness and elegance that one has come to expect from the great jazz players. At the same time he's incorporated what are obviously rhythmic elements of the traditional music into his playing as it traces patterns you don't normally hear from jazz players. As the focal point of the music the guitar could come to dominate what we're listening to, instead it serves as the core around which everything else coalesces to form each song.

Surprisingly Selota also supplies the vocals on this disc, it's not often a jazz guitarist can sing as well as play, and his voice is more than up to the task of blending the vocal lines in with the rest of the music. With the lyrics in sePedi we obviously can't hope to understand what he's singing about specifically, but the music and the tone of his voice do manage to convey a general sense of hopefulness to all the music. According to the notes at Selota's web site a great many of the songs are derived from the folk tales of his home province, but without being able to understand the lyrics the specifics of each of those will be lost on listeners.

However, that doesn't mean that you won't take away an appreciation for the music and the culture of the Limpopo province. For Selota has worked very hard to ensure that musically the disc is as strongly flavoured as possible by traditional sePedi music while at the same time making it accessible to those who won't be familiar with its sounds or the language the songs are being sung in. It's hard to describe what the music sounds like, but there's a gentle flow to it that evoked images of rolling grasslands and horizon lines that stretch off far into the distance. The little I do know about the geography of South Africa is that there are such vistas to be found in the country and its easy to picture Limpopo as one such area.

Selaelo Selota has done the remarkable job of finding just the right balance between the traditional and the new to bring the music of his native province in South Africa to life. What makes this recording special is that he has managed to do this without seeming to sacrifice any of the music's unique regional qualities while making it accessible to a wider audience. It's been a while since we've heard a new voice from South Africa, but as this recording tells us there's still plenty that's new left to be heard from that country. With people like Selota leading the way there's reason to hope that this is just first of many new recordings that we'll hear from South Africa in the near future.

Posted by Richard Marcus at 01:45 PM | Permalink

Something that's always mystified me about movies is how the term character actor signifies a lower class of performer. You see I was always under the impression it was an actor's job to re-create the character that either the playwright or script writer had created. Silly me, people don't want to pay money to see Tom Cruise trying to be someone else, they want to see Tom Cruise fighting Martians War Of The Worlds or being a brave German army officer trying to kill Hitler Valkyrie. In fact, if the character's name isn't in the title of a film, I'd bet most audiences would only know his character as "the guy Tom Cruise played".

Nothing personal against Tom Cruise, you could replace his name in the previous paragraph with that of almost any other current or former movie star and it would be that same story. I say almost because there are some actors out there today who do create characters to play on screen, and aren't content to only play a variation of themselves. However, even when you do get someone creating a character for a movie, you often get more of a caricature than a real person. Most of the time what you'll see is a something along the lines of a few emotions passing itself off as a person; this is my character angry, sad, happy, and horny. Or even worse, what you see on screen is a mish-mash of stereotypes that identify a type but bear little or no relationship to a human being.

It's been years since I've seen any of Tracey Ullman's television work, so I had forgotten her skill at creating characters and bringing them to life. However, after watching the new release from Eagle Rock Entertainment, Tracey Takes On, a triple disc DVD set of the third and fourth seasons of the HBO show of the same name, her talent is indelibly etched into my brain. What makes her work so memorable is the fact her characters are multi-dimensional and the more you see and get to know them, the more human they become.

The premise behind Tracey Takes On is that each segment of the show has Ullman's characters acting out what everything from "Obsession" to "Hollywood" means to them. Ullman introduces each collection of vignettes by citing an example or two of her own experiencesand then we immediately segue to the first of her characters with something to say on the subject. Now I haven't seen any episodes from the first two seasons, but I have to assume that the collection of characters we meet over the course of these three DVDs are ones that have appeared throughout the course of the show, so some of you might already be familiar with names like Ruby Romaine the make-up artist; "Chic" Middle Eastern taxi driver; Trevor the gay airline steward; Sydney Cross the loud mouthed attorney; Chris and her lover Midge, a pro on the LPGA tour; Fern Rosenthal a Jewish retiree from Long Island living in Florida; Linda Granger ex star of the television show VIP Lounge; and the rest of Ullman's menagerie of characters.

While her characters cross all boundaries of sex, race, religion, and age not once do they come across like stereotypes. Of course in some people's minds Ullman wearing black face in order to play an African American airport security officer named Sheneesha Turner, or her portrayal of Mrs. Non Nang Ning, the ancient Asian donut shop owner, is probably horribly politically incorrect. However as she's not holding back from skewering anyone or anything, I think these characters have to be taken within the context which they are presented, some of the best social satire you'll ever see on television.

It's not just the way in which she tackles each of the subjects being "taken on" in each segment, it's the fact that the opinions being expressed are by characters who border on being stereotypes which makes each scene's sharp edges even keener. For as we watch the characters over the course of the three discs we get to know them far better than we would normally know any character on television. Ullman tricks us on occasion by sliding in something that's not funny, or is very gentle in it's humour, which creates a bond between the audience and the particular character by showing them to be more then we had previously thought them to be.

Of course some of the characters you're not going to feel any affection for like Birdie Godsen who has annual book barbecues in her gated community for her fellow Devout Christians living on Dan Quail Drive, or Erin McColl the earthy folk singer who you end up wanting to plant under six feet of earth for being so annoying. However, for the most part something of what can only be described as the characters' humanity shines through allowing us to identify with their situation. It also turns the tables on us as it changes them from being objects of ridicule who we've been laughing at into people whose feelings we can identify with, which leaves you feeling just a little wrong-footed.

It would have been nice if there could have been some liner notes with the package breaking down who appears in which episode alongside Tracy Ullman, or that supplied a little bit more information about the show aside from the blurb on the back cover. True, there is a link to the show's web site where you can find detailed information about each episode, but that's not the same thing as having something you can refer to while watching the show. The special features on the other hand are great as they feature in depth looks at two of the characters we met in this package and one we didn't meet at all. While one skit is a repeat, the rest is all new material and as funny and pointed as anything else in the collection.

It's a rare film and television actor these days whose willing to subordinate themselves to the character they're playing and even rarer to find one capable of creating a character with more depth than a cartoon cut out. Not only has Tracey Ullman created a very pointed, and sometimes poignant, look at modern life with her series Tracey Ullman Takes On she does so by creating characters who are both funny and very real. As this was a cable television show originally it comes with the requisite warnings about drug use, nudity, and some language. However it fails to give you two very important warnings that you'd be wise to heed before watching any of the material on this three disc set: Do not attempt to drink while watching this show because of the danger of chocking and spitting, and ensure that you have emptied your bladder in advance in order to minimize the risks of pissing yourself laughing.

Posted by Richard Marcus at 08:23 PM | Permalink

In 2005 a group of Central and Eastern European countries initiated the The Decade Of Roma Inclusion, a ten year program aimed at improving conditions for the regions ten to twelve million Romani, more commonly known as Gypsies. Its aim was to tackle the educational and social disadvantages faced by Roma communities, and initial signatories included Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Macedonia, Serbia-Montenegro, and Slovakia. These eight countries combined account for over half of Europe's Roma population, which led to hopes that after centuries of persecution perhaps the Roma might finally know some acceptance.

Four years later an Amnesty International report on conditions among the Roma of Europe found the following: they were being denied proper education in the Czech Republic and Slovakia; discrimination in Italy; anit-Roma sentiment on the rise in Hungary; forced evictions in Serbia; refusal of adequate housing in Romania; and Roma being forcibly returned to Kosovo, from which they fled to escape persecution, by countries all over Europe. Five of the countries who supposedly were going to work to improve conditions for Roma showing up in an Amnesty International report on discrimination against the Roma is not what you would call heartening or is it bound to inspire confidence in this, or any, program's chances of success.

Of course with countries' economies reeling from the great "slowdown" everybody's looking for a scapegoat and the Roma and Jews have always run neck and neck for the title of favourite for that distinction in Europe. In fact, if anything, the situation is worse than it sounds. Amnesty's report of anti-Roma sentiment in Hungary is a genteel way of describing arson, murder, and rallies by the extreme right against what they call "Roma Crime" In a country which doesn't keep crime statistics based on ethnicity it's amazing how all of a sudden a minority population is responsible for an increase in crime.

While the political will in Europe just doesn't seem to be strong enough to bring about any real change in the lives of the Roma, other organizations have taken it upon themselves to try different approaches. One such effort was a tour of North America by Roma musicians from Spain, Romania, Macedonia, and India organized by the World Music Institute and documented on film and DVD in the movie Where The Road Bends: Tales Of A Gypsy Caravan. Directed by Jasmine Dellal the film not only joins the tour across North America, but spends time with each of the performers in their home countries introducing us to their lives. The hope was through the combination of the tour and the movie that people will get to know the Roma beyond the stereotypes perpetrated by racists and start to see them as humans as well as giving those involved an opportunity to tell their stories to a wider audience.

The two bands from Romania, Taraf De Haidouks and Fanfare Ciocarlia might be stars on the road and be garnering international attention, but at home they still live in villages minimal amenities. Both bands are the main sources of income for their villages and it seems that in both cases a new generation of band members is being prepared to replace the current ones as they age. Seeing the people ploughing their fields behind teams of horses, and heating their homes with brush wood, it's hard to remember that this was being filmed in 2006. It looks like nothing has changed in hundreds of years, save for the naked electric light bulbs strung in public places.

Obviously the two Romanian bands had much in common, but one of the amazing things about the movie was watching how these groups from around the world without any language in common were able to connect with each other through their music. While all of the bands were fascinated with the group from India, Maharaja, as they represented the origins of the Roma, it was the Spanish flamenco duo of Antonio El Pipa and his aunt Juana la del Pipa who connected with them the most. By the end of the tour they had even managed to work out a performance piece called Tango Maharaja, where the two bands joined forces to dance and sing together. It was really quite extraordinary watcing how they found common ground without being able to talk to each other except through smiles, hand signals, and their music.

Esma Redzepova from Macedonia is recognized globally as the Queen Of The Gypsies, an honour bestowed on her by then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi. Aside from being a dynamic performer for over forty years, Esma, has also been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for her political work on behalf of the Roma. Unable to have children of her own she and her late husband adopted forty-seven children and trained them to earn their livings playing music. As Roma go she is well off, but although she might appear to be a diva when on stage, off is another matter as can be seen from her interaction with the other performers on the tour. Even if there were some trace elements of diva that did shine through, after watching her perform you could forgive her anything.

Of course it's the music that is the most compelling part of the movie. From the all out assault of Fanfare Ciocarlia, the raw, fiery passion of Antonio and Juana singing and dancing flamenco, the eerie and beautiful music of Maharaja and their amazing dancers, the wild strings of Taraf De Haidouks, to the magnificence of Esma Redzepova, its an experience that has to be witnessed to be believed. Life, love, joy, sadness, sorrow, but never self-pity, pour from their songs and their dances like lava from a volcano. You can't help but wonder what these people do that allows them to experience life so fully that they can perform and share this with us to such an extent. After being spat on for hundreds of years, and still being spat on and treated like dirt to this day, they somehow find inside themselves the strength to not only continue living, but to play music that is far more life affirming than anything you'll hear from almost any other source.

It strikes me as one of the world's supreme ironies that these musicians were paraded around like this in an attempt to garner wider acceptance of the Roma among the world at large, when they should be giving the rest of us lessons on how to live. We should be grateful that the Roma are still willing to even make an effort to reach out to us instead of picking up weapons to fight back and protect themselves from our world. If you know nothing about the Roma, this movie will not only introduce you to their music but give you a peek into their lives and an overview of their history as a people since they left India over a thousand years ago to travel west. Perhaps you'll come to understand that you have nothing to fear from them except the chance of your heart being broken.

Posted by Richard Marcus at 01:24 AM | Permalink

After a while there's only so much acoustic blues music you can listen to without it starting to become tedious. It's not the music's fault, it's the fact that there are far too many people out there playing it who really have no business doing so. Acoustic blues are apparently a fairly simple genre to play, judging by how many people all of a sudden are either recording or performing it. It seems like every time I receive a new batch of material to review there are always a couple of new acts trying their hand at it. However, far too many of these acts just don't have what's necessary to make the music interesting.

So it was with some trepidation that I began listening to Preachin' The Blues by the duo Izzy & Chris on the 80/20 Music Entertainment label. I was all prepared to have to try and force myself to pay attention to their music. Far too many of the discs like it that I've received in the past little while have been so boring that all the songs end up sounding the same. However, I quickly realized that these guys weren't like that at all as the first song reached out and grabbed me by the ears and made me listen to it.

The intangibles that go into making a good blues song are sometimes hard to spell out. First of all different things appeal to different people, so that something which might make a blues song work for me, is going to turn you off. We all have different emotional triggers that we react to, and blues has to be able to work on an almost primal level for it to make a connection to its audience. If the performer doesn't connect to you emotionally your not going to be that interested in him. Personally I respond more to the tonal quality of a performance rather than what a band is actually saying with their lyrics. I listen to quite a lot of music where I don't even understand the lyrics because they're being sung in a language I don't know, but I can still relate to the music because of what they are able to communicate in other ways.

Izzy and Chris are Israel Stetar on guitar and Christopher Nacy on harmonicas, and I assume they share vocals, but they don't delineate who sings what so that's hard to tell. Although it's probably safe to assume that when Chris is blowing the harp it's Izzy doing the singing. However, no matter who it is, they could have been singing in pig-Latin, and I would still have been moved by their music. Right from the opening guitar chords of the first song on the disc, "Steady Rollin' Daddy", you get that shiver up your spine that tells you're about to hear something special.

One of the things I noticed about them right away was that they weren't trying to impose their will upon the music. Some players will try and make their guitar sound more "emotional" by strumming or plucking harder, playing faster, or doing something else to "colour" their music. Izzy just lets the music speak for itself, and in doing so he's found a way for it to express what he's feeling with the same amount of power that his voice does. I don't know how it works, but when a person is completely focused on what they are doing and are willing to invest everything they do with all of themselves, it shines like a beacon on a dark night. Izzy is somehow putting so much of himself into his guitar playing that each note "talks" to the listener. It doesn't seem to matter what speed he's playing at either, as each note is alive with a little piece of his soul and comes through loud and clear.

Chris is doing much the same with his harmonica playing. Now I've heard guys who play fast, loud, and who can fill the air with a million notes when they play harmonica. They bend notes left, right, and centre in an effort to show off their virtuosity, and put on a really good show. However, half the time I don't really feel anything while listening to them. There's been tons of guys who can do the same thing. From what I heard on this disc though, Chris doesn't seem hung up on the impression he makes on the listener, he's more concerned with making sure he serves the song that he and Izzy are playing. When he bends a note it's only because he's expressing the curve of an emotion as it arcs through a song, not to show off. It's not often a harp player is able to send shivers up my spine just by playing a single note, but there's something about Chris' playing that the was able to do that time and time again throughout this recording.

As befits the almost plain and rough hewed style of music they play, the vocals on this disc are rough and unadorned. If they've used anything like reverberation in the recording process it's been so little that you can barely tell. Again, like their playing, neither of them are forcing anything when they sing and are content with allowing their voices to come out as naturally as possible. Just the sound of their voices is able to communicate a depth of feeling that is usually lacking in performers who try to be expressive.

There are only a couple of acoustic blues artists who I can listen to on regular basis anymore, as the rest have just become far too tedious. With Preachin' The Blues Izzy & Chris have made a very convincing argument that they should be included among those few worth listening too. They show a dedication and commitment to the music that you don't often find in anyone playing these days. As a result there's also an emotional honesty to what they do that makes them hard to resist and a pleasure to listen to. If you've been looking for some really good acoustic blues to listen to, than you need look no further than these guys.

Posted by Richard Marcus at 01:09 AM | Permalink

If you're not old enough to remember the 1970's and the ravages of disco, count yourself lucky as you missed out on the first wave of turning music into pre-packaged plastic. One of the worst myths to be borne out of that era was, you can say what you like about disco but there's no other music you can dance to. Which was utter garbage of course, but as you weren't going to hear anything else in clubs, at dances, or on the radio that you could move to aside from disco, the chances of anybody knowing any better were slim to none.

Of course there were plenty of alternatives if you were only willing to look for them. Funk, soul, R&B, and all the rest were still being recorded and released all though out the 1970's. Now a days of course disco is long gone, but its legacy lingers in the car stereos and dance clubs which blare out bass laden cacophony under the guise of it being dance music. Like disco the lyrics, if any, are as mindless and mind numbing as the music itself. Yet for some reason people still can't seem to be bothered to seek out some of the great music out there which you can not only dance to, but that has intelligible lyrics.

So as a public service announcement to those people I'd like to tell you about Missy Andersen's self-titled release, Missy Andersen, that manages to pack more substance into its eight tracks than you're liable to hear from a night of what normally passes for dance music. Even better is the fact that you can even listen to this recording if you don't feel like dancing as the music is just as enjoyable to listen to as it is to move your feet to.

One of the reasons this disc is so good is that Andersen has chosen to mix it up on this recording so no two songs are exactly alike. From the old style R&B of the opening cut "Ace Of Spades", the up-tempo, horn driven blues number "New Feet", the driving funk of "Pack It Up", to slow soulful tracks like "Same Old Blues", she and her band rock you off your feet, and then slow it down so you can rock in your sweet baby's arms. You could replace a DJ with this disc as all you have to do is slip it in a sound system and let it run. You'll get thirty plus minutes of music you can move to without ever feeling like you've had to listen to the same song twice, let along over and over again.

The band, Heine Andersen (guitars), Asmus Jensen (drums), Soren Bojgaard (bass) and Jeppe Jull (Hammond organ) with the help of guests Robbie Smith and Bob Mathes on trumpet and saxophone respectively, do a great job of creating the illusion of being loose while being incredibly tight. They can push the beat forward hard and fast when required, but also slow it right down and play slow and rich so that you feel each note in your bones. And that's not because they've got the bass turned up so high that you can pulverize tempered steel with it, but because they play with such feeling that you can't help but allow it to seep beneath the surface of your skin.

Of course the band can be as hot as you like but if the singer can't keep up her side of the deal, well there's not much sense in listening. Missy Andersen not only lives up to her obligations as a singer, she blows them out of the water. One moment she's growling out some charged up funk lyrics and the next her voice is aching from the blues. Even more impressive is the breadth of her range as she's able to climb and descend the scale with equal ease so that no matter where she is on the it she's not showing any strain what-so-ever.

Back in the day when people like Areatha Franklin were tearing up the soul charts with their songs, most singers had received their start in church choirs. Things are different now, and Andersen had to make due with singing at home to her parent's collection of soul, R&B, and classic jazz and blues. Her first singing gigs were actually as a rapper, but she soon started earning her chops as a session vocalist doing backing vocals in studios. In the 1990's she moved to the West Coast where she joined the Juke Joint Jezebelles, a quartet who sang gospel, blues, and soul and provided back-up vocals for blues performer Earl Thomas.

So even though Missy Andersen is her first recording, she's had year of experience within which she's been able to develop not only her voice and style, but the ability to handle the demands of singing a multitude of genres. Often times people who have made a career our being a back up singer aren't successful in making the switch to front person. While they may have wonderful voices, they lack the presence required to stand up in front of the band and lead them. It's obvious from listening to Andersen that she's mot only paid her dues singing for others, she learned enough to be a front person of power and passion.

There's something about her voice that not only grabs your attention but holds onto it as well. How often have you listened to music that makes you want to dance and listen to the lyrics at the same time? Well that's what happens when you listen to Andersen's recording as there's an urgency in her delivery that compels you to at the least pay attention to her while she's singing, if not listen carefully to what she has to say.

Missy Andersen is a great recording which proves that dance music doesn't have to be mindless. Missy Andersen and her band deliver great sounding music that will either have you up on your feet and dancing, or sitting back and listening appreciatively. Either way its a great disc and holds out the promise of a great future for her as a lead singer.

Posted by Richard Marcus at 05:03 AM | Permalink

In the early 1960's, when young British musicians were discovering the joys of African American music like the blues, it seemed liked popular music in America itself was turning its back on the same influences. Indeed the charts were dominated by groups who sounded like their major influences were the crooners of the fifties and musicals. It was music that wouldn't make any waves or make anyone feel at all threatened and was a far cry from the exciting music that had burst out of Sun Records in the 1950's. However what it lacked in energy, it made up for with technical prowess, as it was distinguished by polished arrangements and impeccable vocal harmonies.

Most of the bands relied on other people's songs for material, and were at the mercy of their record labels as to what songs would be promoted and how. The majority of the bands weren't really bands either, rather a group of four or five singers, either all male or all female but very rarely a mixture, who were supported by whatever session musicians were on hand when they were in the studio. With the only goal in mind generating a hit single, record companies would devote the majority of a group's studio time to recording the one or two songs they thought might have the best chance of becoming a hit and then quickly recording enough material to fill an album. .

It was these circumstances that made producers like Phil Spector their reputations as the more hits a producer generated the more of a genius he looked regardless of who he was using to record the songs. Now a days if a bands lead singer quits it usually spells the end for them or at the very least will mean a significant change in their sound. However when it's the producer who is controlling the sound and the choice of material who was in the band was nearly irrelevant. Which goes a long way in explaining how there could have been two different "Jays" in Jay & The Americans from the time they released their first single, "Tonight" from Leonard Bernstien's musical West Side Story until they broke up in 1970.

That's one of the things which makes listening to the new three CD set, Jay & The Americans: The Complete United Artists Singles, just released by Collectors Choice Music such a novel experience. Whether it's a negative or a positive is up to you decide, but I couldn't tell the difference between the band which sang "Tonight" back in 1961 with one lead singer (John "Jay" Traynor) and the one who sang "Come A Little Bit Closer" in 1964 with Jay Black. When the band fell apart in 1970 Black continued on as Jay & The Americans until he lost the right to use the name when he went bankrupt and the judge auctioned off the name in an effort to raise money for his creditors. The band has since reformed featuring two of the original 1961 band members, Sandy Deanne and Howie Kane, with a third Jay, Jay Reincke.

Now, as you've probably gathered by the tone of this so far, I'm not the biggest fan of this type of music. I find the majority of it insipid, sentimental, and just plain boring, However, I had recently heard Willy DeVille do a version of "Come A Little Bit Closer" which I thought was great. So I was curious to hear not only what the original version of the hit sounded like, but whether or not there was more to this style of music then I had first believed. There was obviously nothing wrong with some of the material they had been performing and this collection would be a perfect opportunity to revisit the era to check out the rest of their catalogue from the first time around.

It doesn't seem to have mattered whether it was Traynor or Black who was lead singer as the harmonies and vocals were impeccable on each of the songs. I've always liked West Side Story and hadn't been aware that "Tonight" had ever been recorded as a single, so that was a nice surprise to hear right off the top. Unfortunately, even though these were supposed to be the cream of their repertoire, a good many of the songs were no where near being up to the same quality as the opener, and some were just downright embarrassing to listen to. "Only In America" is the worst sort of sentimental, jingoist trash, and "Baby This Is Rock & Roll" is just tripe extolling the music of the title, which is silly considering how little these songs have to do with rock and roll.

However, the band seems able to rise above the quality of most of their material so at least it isn't impossible to listen to. Unfortunately, no matter what the song or who the lead vocalist is, they are also virtually indistinguishable from each other. Oh sure some of them have a sort of Latin sound to them, but it's been so toned down that I don't see why the bothered. Anyway the vocals sound so "All American", white, and bland, if the music were a little spicier it completely out of place.

If you're a fan of Jay And The Americans than this collection will be something you will probably want to snatch up right away. Not only does it contain pristine versions of all the singles the band recorded from 1961 to 1970 it comes with a booklet that gives you a very good history of the group. On the other hand if you've never liked this style of music, a triple disc set will seem like three discs too many, as nothing about it will do anything to change your opinion.

Posted by Richard Marcus at 06:43 AM | Permalink

These days the borders between musical worlds and genres are blurring at an ever increasing rate. When a musician who was born a Jew in Israel and now lives in America who grew up playing the music of African Americans makes a recording with Malian musicians that combines his native and learned traditions with their music, well perhaps we are finally hearing world music. Up until now when we've called something world music we've really meant its from outside the boundaries defined by our language and cultural tradition.

It's become so ridiculous that a Native American recording in his own country, where his ancestors have lived for hundreds if not thousands of years, has his music classified as world. On the other hand a group who records material derived from traditional anglo/Irish folk tunes is called Americana. It's even funnier when you consider that the latter are using instruments that originated in Africa (the banjo) and Spain (guitar) while the former's instruments originated in North America. What kind of world are we talking about when we say world music? A world where we work together to create something of harmony and beauty? Or a world divided into those who are like us, and those who are different and not quite as important?

Oran Etkin was born in Israel and fell in love with the music of Louis Armstrong when he was nine years old and has been playing jazz ever since. However at the age of nineteen he also started playing with Joe Camara, a percussionist from Mali. While it was Camara who broadened Etkin's musical horizons by inviting him to Mali to live and play with him, it was Balla Koyate, a balafon (xylophone) player from Mali, and Makane Kouyate, percussion and vocals, he joined forces with in 2003 to begin the process that has resulted in the production of his new release, Kelenia on the Motema label.

The title of the disc, Kelenia, is a word in the Bambara language meaning the love felt by those who are different from each other. This is highly appropriate when you consider the backgrounds of the original trio, and those who have joined them on this recording. Of course the music is an expression of the sentiments expressed in the disc's title as well as the different backgrounds come through in the music. For not only do we hear the obvious African and American influences, but in Etkin's clarinet playing one can also hear the echo of Klezmer and faint traces of Eastern Europe wafting through as well.

What's most impressive about the music on the disc is how well the musicians have managed to blend their diverse talents to create music that not only reflects their individual musical backgrounds but something new as well that's a result of that intermingling. The music of Mali was not written with saxophone or clarinet in mind, but not once on any of the disc's eleven tracks do either of those instruments sound out of place when being accompanied by the balafon, or when they provide accompaniment to Makane Kouyate's vocals. The same applies when Balla Koyate joins Etkin for a rendition of Duke Ellignton's "It Doesn't Mean A Thing", as his balafon, although lending the song a more exotic flavour than we might be accustomed to, sounds right at home.

There have been recordings made of North America musicians playing with those from countries like Mali before. Yet they have not been like this, because most of those have attempted to graft the blues or jazz onto a tradition, that while sharing some similarities, still has its own distinct flavour. In the past that flavour has usually been close to washed away, resulting in people exclaiming about how much "they sound like us". Of course any similarities that exist do so because our music descends from theirs, or, in other words because we sound like them. However, the real problem is the fact that the styles never seem to meet on equal terms.

On Kelenia Oran Etkin and his band mate aren't trying to graft anything. Instead they have synthesized their individual musical and cultural identities to create something that not only allows them to express a unified sound, but also preserves their individuality. The last thing I would think anyone would want to hear would be a sound that eliminates our differences in order to create something homogenous and without character. Somehow these musicians manage to both celebrate their differences and ways for them to work in concert. As you listen you'll be able to pick out traits that sound familiar to your ear which serve as a bridge into this new musical landscape that has been created.

What is so amazing about this recording is that its a disc where nobody is trying to imitate somebody else's way of playing music but that all involved have figured out how their music can work as part of the other's style. The result is something extraordinary and wonderful to listen to. For not only is the sound harmonious, but so are the feelings generated by the intent behind the making of the disc. For as the title means the love of people who are different from each other, so the music celebrates how people can love each other because of their differences, not in spite of them.

When you listen to this disc you will have to rid yourself of any preconceived notions that you may have of how certain types of music should sound. However, you'll soon realize that if more people were willing to make the kind of effort these musicians have made, it would be more than a new world of sound you'd be experiencing, it would be a far more harmonious world.

Posted by Richard Marcus at 01:47 AM | Permalink

When you mention Jewish music to most people they will most likely either think of Fiddler On The Roof, groups of Kibbutzim dancing Israeli folk songs, or maybe even Klezmer. However most people don't associate Judaism with religious music, and for the longest time music was forbidden to Jews by Rabbinical edict as a symbol of their mourning the destruction of the second temple in Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 AD. Yet, by the middle ages those strictures were relaxed and instruments were once again to being used to help celebrate religious feasts and secular events.

Of course with such a huge break in their own musical tradition, and the fact that most Jews were now living in Eastern Europe instead of Jerusalem, their music was heavily influenced by the folk music of their gentile neighbours. Like Yiddish, the language spoken by the Jews of Eastern Europe for day to day usage, you can hear traces of everything from German, Polish, Czech, to the Romani (gypsies) in Klezmer and Jewish religious music. While Klezmer music has obtained a level of popularity recently and there are any number of recordings available, the same can't be said for the religious music. However two musicians who were instrumental in creating the interest in Klezmer music through helping found the band The Klezmatics have now begun making recordings of Jewish religious music as well.

Frank London and Lorin Sklamberg have just released Tsuker-zis on the Tzadik label, a collection of fourteen songs celebrating various holidays and aspects of Jewish religious life. The title is Yiddish for sugar sweet, and according to notes accompanying the release Jewish imagery often uses sugar metaphorically to describe the divine sweetness of our lives. That doesn't mean the songs on the album are sickeningly sweet, rather they are expressions of the joy the various holidays bring to people. For even a holiday as intimating sounding as Yom Kippur, Day of Atonement, can be considered joyous as its a part of the overall sweetness of the divine in a Jewish person's life

However, you'd be forgiven for wondering what kind of disc of Jewish religious music features an Armenian oud player, Ara Dinkjian, a tabla player from North India, Deep Singh, and an electric guitar player, Knox Chandler, whose credits include Cyndi Lauper, the Psychedelic Furs, and Siouxie & The Banshees. Well, when you consider that trumpeter and keyboard player London has worked with everyone from Itzhak Perlman to LL Cool J and vocalist and accordion player Sklamberg has taught Yiddish singing from Maui to Kiev, the fact that they have elected to work with three musicians from such diverse backgrounds makes a little more sense. Anyway, remember the Jewish musical tradition that has inspired this recording drew upon a wide variety of musical influences to begin with. It only follows that modern day adaptations of these songs should follow in their footsteps by drawing upon the world around them as well.

Right from the opening track, "A Sukkah Of Branches", you realize you're in for something completely different from what you're used to if you've heard any Jewish music before. While I have to admit that swirling, atmospheric keyboard music was the last thing I expected to hear when I hit the play button, it not only suited what they were doing with that song in particular, it served as an overture to the whole recording by giving you fair warning of what was to come. This isn't another "ethnic" recording that would look good on stage in "authentic" clothes accompanied by "traditional"cuisine for those looking to take a Disney world tour of cultures.

Instead of merely being content with recreating music as it would have been played five hundred to six hundred years ago, the musicians have found new ways to turn music into a celebration of the presence of the divine in people's lives. While four of the tracks either are composed by, or include text written by, others, the remaining songs are either originals or new arrangements of traditional songs. Not only does this make the music more relevant to a modern audience, it also has the added benefit of allowing them to make the music accessible by including instruments not normally associated with the Jewish tradition.

Now that doesn't mean they have done anything stupid like disguise what it is they are singing about by hiding the fact that the songs are about religious celebrations. With titles like "Our Parent, Our Sovereign", "The Lord Sent His Servant", and "Elijah The Prophet Bought A Red Cow" it's pretty hard to miss the fact that the songs aren't just pretty little tunes or interesting music to listen to. In fact even just listening to the music without knowing the titles, or understanding every word being sung should be enough to let you know what's going on.

For somehow these five musicians have created music that no matter what your belief system communicates the joy and sweetness that's to be found in the act of believing. However, even if you should somehow miss the point from the music, once you hear Lorin Sklamberg start to sing you can't help but understand what the music is about. I'm not one to use the term divine inspiration lightly, but when you listen to Sklamberg sing you can't help but feel like he's been inspired by something beyond the mundane. It's hard to describe, because he's not doing anything overt like engaging in histrionics or any of the other melodramatic things some singers do to indicate their "sincerity" and "passion". Yet, there can be no doubting the depth of his passion or the level of his sincerity. He has integrated himself into the ensemble as another instrument to the point where he sounds like he's giving voice to their feelings letting you know its the message that's important, not the messenger.

Taken as a whole Tsuker-zis celebrates the belief in the divine on a universal level even though its content is specific to one religion. For even if you're not Jewish, you can't help but be moved by the what the musicians involved have created in the name of that belief. If you're Jewish you will definitely be moved by this disc, but if you're willing to listen with your heart as well as your ears, you can't help but be moved no matter who or what you believe in.

Posted by Richard Marcus at 02:27 PM | Permalink

What happens when you set out to disrupt the established order and and somewhere along the way discover that you've become the establishment? After a couple of years of playing the same music over and over again that's what was happening to punk bands in England by the end of the 1970's. At least that's how Bob Geldof describes the situation in an interview near the beginning of Wolfgang Buld's Punk In England, the follow up to his 1978 documentary Punk In London, now available from MVD Entertainment. Geldof, who was lead singer of The Boomtown Rats at the time, claims that with the exception of The Clash, who were good enough to evolve without selling out and the Sex Pistols who imploded, punk bands by 1979 were at the end of the road. He says that by refusing to grow they allowed themselves to become the establishment which others wanted to overthrow because they had become boring.

While there is some truth to what Geldof says, there's also the fact that by 1979 major labels were catching on to the fact that there was money to be made from punk and began signing the more marketable bands to deals. After EMI's disaster with the Sex Pistols, labels weren't interested in real punk bands, they wanted bands like The Jam who could be marketed easily and looked nice. You only have to listen to the songs included on this disc by The Jam to hear how much different they are even from the supposedly evolved Clash. For while the Clash may have made their music more complex and slowed the tempo down somewhat, watching the clips of them included in this movie shows they haven't become any more commercial than they were previously. There's not many who would be prepared to call their music nice and safe and ready for mainstream radio play in the United States or other big markets. Sure compared to footage of them playing only the year earlier there's a huge difference, but listen to them compared to the Jam who appear soon after them in the movie and you'll see an even bigger difference.

While Geldof is right in saying that punk bands ran into a wall due to their own lack of creativity and new bands with fresher ideas did come along to replace them, the reality is that on the whole those bands who did come along and replaced them were a lot more commercially viable and less liable to lead a revolution. Sure there were some other bands at the same time like Spiz Zenergi but judging by the samples of their work we see in the movie, not only weren't the commercially viable, their music just wasn't that good. Band's like Ian Dury and the Blockheads, who are shown here singing their song "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick" were more like the novelty bands of the sixties who had one or two songs that caught the public's attention before they vanished from the scene. "Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll" might have been sold quite a few copies and received air play on some FM radio stations, but it's wasn't enough to guarantee Dury and his mates eternal popularity.

The music movement that proved to have slightly more legs than punk did was ska, which really can't be considered punk so I'm not sure why it was included in this documentary. Maybe it was because bands like the The Specials and The Selector were political statements simply by virtue of their existence. Perhaps the fact that they were both inter-racial bands playing music which had obvious reggae influences was enough for Buld to include them as part of the punk movement. For, while them both having black and white musicians in their bands may not sound like such a big deal to us, in the racially charged England of the late 1970's it was huge. In 1976 Rock Against Racism was started in response to Eric Clapton making racist, anti black statements during one of his concerts, including chanting "Keep Britain White" the slogan of the neo-nazi National Front Party. On top of this there was also substantial amounts of racial violence directed against both the black and the south-east Asian communities in England.

So integrated bands like The Specials, The Selector, and a little later on The English Beat, not only created wonderful music but sent a message of tolerance that was badly needed at a time when there wasn't much to be seen anywhere else. The film makes a point of noting that neither the Specials nor The Selector were signed to major labels and both released discs on the independent Two Tone label; an obvious reference to not only the composition of their membership, but their musical influences. While ska of course had been around for a long time, and in fact predates reggae music, the type played by the bands in the late 1970's had a harder edge to it than any of the older ska I've heard. Listening and watching The Selector especially gives you a really good idea of how their music combined pop, rock, and reggae to make for a really upbeat, and high energy dance music.

As a special feature on this release, another, shorter documentary by Wolfgang Buld is included, Women In Rock. Unfortunately it's pretty much as patronizing and a waste of time as you'd think it would be from the title. The only women who are at all interesting of those he's chosen to talk with or show performing are Siouxie, of Siouxie & The Banshees and the incredibly odd Nina Hagen. The clips of Siouxie and The Banshees playing in this second documentary are actually one of the high points of the whole disc musically as far as I'm concerned as they are much more musically interesting than most of the other bands who appear in either documentary.

While the quality of the sound and visuals are surprisingly good considering their provenance, there's not much the film crew can do to improve upon the quality of the music. In fact, while this may not have been the point of the film when it was made back in 1979, Punk In England shows how music that had once been considered a threat by the establishment was co-opted and made safe for mass consumption with bands like The Jam. Aside from the brief spark of life provided by The Specials and The Selector half-way through the movie, after the opening couple of tunes by The Clash, the music becomes boring and pedestrian. No matter what the title of this DVD claims, judging by the music it presents, there's really not much punk left in England by 1979.

Posted by Richard Marcus at 02:09 AM | Permalink

In the summer of 1980 London England was close to a war zone with race riots and battles between police and demonstrators breaking out all the time. Then Conservative Party Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had created such a divisive atmosphere that the anger of the disaffected, the poor and people of colour, boiled over onto the streets routinely in June and July of that summer. For a while it looked like the song "London's Burning" that The Clash had written a couple of years earlier had every chance of coming true. While there were punk scenes in North America; New York City, Toronto Ontario, and Los Angeles, in comparison to what was going on in England, and specifically London, that's all they were was scenes, not the politically charged calls to action that were sound tracks for running battles with the police.

In an interview he gave in 2006, German film director Wulfgang Buld describes how news of punk had reached Germany. So when the film school he was attending demanded he do some documentary features as part of his course work, he set off to England in 1978 with a film crew to see what all the fuss was about. One of the films he made during that trip, Punk In London, has just been released in a re-mastered form on DVD by MVD Entertainment. The interviews with various musicians, and the footage of bands like The Boomtown Rats, The Jam, The Lurkers, Chelsea, Subway Sect, The Adverts, and The Clash not only capture the energy of the music and the time, but also the anger constantly simmering just beneath the surface. In the film the anger comes across as general dissatisfaction and frustration with the way things were shaping up in England at the time and make you realize the events of 1980 weren't just a spur of the moment thing, but a long time in the building.

The interview with Buld is one of two special features included on the DVD, the other being a concert given by The Clash in Munichin 1978, and while its interesting enough for establishing a context for the movie and describing how it came about, what makes Punks In London fascinating is its subject matter. Shot with one camera and portable sound equipment, Buld and his crew go everywhere from the clubs, the old warehouses bands used for rehearsal halls, to the storefront label/record store Rough Trade who played a key role in giving bands exposure.

Unlike today when these things would have been arranged by a band's management or label, Buld would show up with his crew on location sometimes having phoned in advance and other times not. This resulted in the interesting scene of them being basically told to piss off by The Stranglers; "I'm not a prostitute" one them responded when asked why they didn't want to be in the film by Buld. However, because of that spontaneity it also means this is one of the best up close and intimate looks at the people and the music involved in punk I've seen. A couple of the more interesting moments that occurred because of this were an interview with Kevin Rowlands, who would go on to fame as the lead singer and founder of Dexy's Midnight Runners but at the time was fronting a band called The Killjoys, and following Bob Geldof onto stage with the camera to film the Boomtown Rats from behind their drum kit performing "Do The Rat".

Aside from the music there are also some interviews with people who were on other sides of the scene. Rough Trade was, and for all I know still is, a small independent record store/label which was one of the first places people could go to get information on bands, buy independently produced singles, and talk about what was going on in the world at the same time. The interview with two guys working at the store gives you some idea as to how the punk scene was being politicalized and hints somewhat at events to come in the future. There was also an interview with a reporter form the London music magazine Sounds where he takes credit for the magazine being one of the first music papers to take punk seriously. While I can't argue with him on that point, I did snicker a bit listening to the guy. Back in the late 1970's and early 1980's New Music Express (NME) was the magazine my friends and I all bought when we wanted to find out about what was going on in British music, while we considered Sounds a bit of a joke. So it was funny to see this guy taking himself so seriously and making out how important they were.

However, the music is what was really important, and while some of the footage is a bit grainy and some of the sound isn't the best, what Punk In London captures like no other film I've ever seen shot from that era is the experience of watching one of these bands perform. If you ever went to some small hole in the wall of a club where far more than the legal limit of people have crammed into the space and felt the way the music connected audience and band than you'll understand that feeling, and how rare it is to see it caught on film. I've seen other footage taken during the same era, but I've never seen anyone manage to capture the spirit of the time on film quite like this.

The real highlight as far as I'm concerned is the special features section containing the full footage of The Clash concert. For those of you who may have only heard songs from later on in the band's history - say from Sandanista and after - and wondered why they were called a punk band, watching this film from a gig in Munich in 1978 will explain everything. Yet, no matter how loud, how fast, or how intense they were, they also dispel the myth of punk bands not being musical as they harmonize on their vocals and are as tight a band as any you're liable to see anywhere or anytime. It turns out these weren't ideal conditions either, for as we learn in an interview the tour of Germany had been a shambles as they haven't eaten in three days and were thrown out of their hotel by the police.

While there's no way to capture the feelings generated by the music and the times, and punk really was a product of time and place, this movie comes the closest to doing that of any that I've ever seen. So if you've ever wondered what old farts like me are going on about when we rave about how great punk used to be, this movie will give you some idea of what we were talking about. The revolution may never have happened, but you can see why we might have thought it possible. With energy like that as your soundtrack, you really could believe in your power to change the world.

Posted by Richard Marcus at 01:28 PM | Permalink

The late 1970's and the early 1980's were times of civil unrest in England that was marked by running battles between the police and minority groups. Young south-east Asians and blacks in particular came under fire from the police for refusing to take abuse from either them or neo-nazi groups like the National Front. It was one of the peculiarities of British policing at the time that when Asian or black youth fought back against skin-heads the police always managed to show up to quell the "rioting" but were never to be found when the skin heads were on the assault.

In 1980 tensions between police and the black community boiled over amidst accusations of police brutality and racism and the resulting riots left behind damage that was still visible a month after. I was in London just after the riots and there were still store fronts boarded over with plywood and the underground press was full of stories of young black men being picked up and worked over for no reason. It seemed that the police were especially targeting the most visible among the black minority - Rastafarians - who were easily distinguished by either their dreadlocks or the colourful knitted caps they wore to contain their "dreads"

The Rastafarian religion had come over to England with Jamaican immigrates after WWll. It was started as a black liberation movement in the slums of Jamaica based on the writings of black nationalist Marcus Garvey. The name Rastafari comes from the name Emperor Haile Selassie I was known by before ascending the throne of Ethiopia, Ras Tafari Makonnen. In his writings Garvey had predicted the coming of a black king in Africa who would lead black people to freedom, and when Selassie was crowned in 1930 he was believed to be that man. The self styled Lion of Judah not only gave his name to the religion, he was taken as a god on earth by the more devout amongst his followers.

For the Rastafarian, the white man's world, Babylon, is a prison and he will only be truly free when he is living in the promised land of Africa - specifically Ethiopia, In his documentary movie made in 1978, Reggae In Babylon, German film maker Wolfgang Buld's interviews with young British reggae musicians shows that while not all of them were strict adherents to the tenets of the religion, they did look upon it as significant for the role it played in establishing a black identity for young British of African descent. One of the members of the band Steel Pulse in their interview describes himself as not necessarily being an adherent of the religion, but he could appreciate it for the sense of history and identity it gave him.

Reggae In Babylon has just been reissued by MVD Entertainment and is an amazing historical document. In it the director went around and interviewed various key figures in the British reggae scene in 1978 when it was just beginning to take off. He not only talks to bands like Steel Pulse, he took footage of them playing both live and in the studio. The majority of what he talks to the various individuals about is the history of reggae, both in and outside of England, and its inter-relation with Rastafarianism. While there are no direct references to any of the troubles that are being experienced by the black community at the time, one of the interviews takes place in front of a bulletin board on which is hung a sign denouncing the National Front.

While Steel Pulse are probably the name most of us are going to be familiar with of those interviewed for the film, the members of Aswad, are more of a Rastafarian band in terms of their religious convictions, and look more like what we have come to expect a reggae band to look like. For in these young days of British reggae, folks like the members of Steel Pulse have yet to grow their hair in dreads and are dressed in their street clothes when performing. The music however is pure reggae with all of the characteristics of the sound firmly established.

Lyrically Steel Pulse music reflected the tenor of the times more than any of the other musicians interviewed. In fact there were a couple of songs sung by Jimmy Lindsay, "Ain't No Sunshine" for instance, that weren't much different from most R&B or soul song in terms of content. The only real difference being the lyrics were sung with a slight Jamaican accent. Interestingly enough, as most of the musicians were born in England, and some are even second generation English, very few of them speak with the thick accent we've come to associate with reggae musicians. The guys in Steel Pulse all sound pretty much like anybody their age born in urban England.

As for the other major characteristic of Rastafarianism, the use of marijuana as a sacrament, while there were some shots of people smoking while listening to Aswad playing, there wasn't much made or said about it by. In fact it receives only the briefest of mentions by one person when asked to define Rastafrianism. It doesn't appear to have been as important to these people as a whole as it might have been for reggae players elsewhere.

One of the nice surprises about Reggae In Babylon is the high quality of both the picture and the sound, especially considering it was filmed thirty years ago and the sound was originally mono. The images are sharp and clear, and the sound was a lot cleaner than many a disc shot these days. Whoever was responsible for re-mastering the tapes has done a magnificent job.

1978 in England was a turbulent time especially in the inner cities where punk and reggae were taking root among the young people and providing them a focal point for their frustration with the system. Reggae In Babylon not only gives us insights into some of the social conditions affecting the black community of the time, it shows the role reggae and Rastafarian religion played in giving it a sense of purpose and identity. While there was no Rastafarian church or leadership the people could rally around or follow, it still acted as a unifying element. Unlike previous generations they weren't going to be content with the role of docile servant and were prepared to stand up for their rights and reggae was the soundtrack for that fight.

Posted by Richard Marcus at 06:37 PM | Permalink

Country music sure has changed since the days the people of the Appalachians were singing the songs their Scottish and Irish ancestors brought over with them from across the water. Not only does the majority of so-called country we hear today bear no relationship to any of those traditional songs, listening to it you'd be hard pressed to understand why the heck it is even called country as it has nothing to do with country life or the people who live it. What far too many of these groups, or performers, have done is use the sentimental nature of the old folk songs as inspiration for their material and wrap the result in the tinsel of pop music.

That they still seem to think they're qualified to sing songs about farmers, long distance truckers, and the beauty of trains is a bit of a joke, especially when you consider the closest most of them have come to any of the above has been passing them in their converted tour buses. It's no wonder that the majority of what you hear on the "country charts" sounds about as sincere as a politician caught with his hand in the cookie jar or an evangelical preacher with a prostitute. While recent years has seen something of a revival of interest in the traditional style of music, the chances of you getting to hear it on the radio on a regular basis remain slim to none.

However, if you're willing to stray away from the radio dial and venture off into un"charted" territory you'll have a far better chance of hearing music with a whole lot more substance. One of the bands off the map are J B Beverlry &The Wayward Drifters. They've just released their second recording, Watch America Roll By on their own, Helltrain Records label.

Nowhere on any of the twelve tracks on Watching America Roll By are you going to hear a voice catch in order to simulate emotion as the lead singer, J B Beverley, doesn't need to resort to such fakery. He sings with a voice that sounds like its been scarred not only by what he's experienced personally, but by the empathy he feels for others and their stories. While it's important for a singer/songwriter to have been around the block a few times and had his or her share of what life can throw at you, what's just as important is how they express that in song. You can sing about yourself and be full of self pity, or you can sing about yourself in such a manner that everybody can identify with what you're talking about as you've taken the personal and made it universal.

Beverley is one of the latter, so even when he's singing a song about how he's always been alone in "Me And My Blues", anybody whose ever felt like they're destined to spend their life by themselves will feel like he's singing about them. Of course there's some songs that you're not going to identify with directly, but even on a track like "Interstate Blues" where he sings about the band travelling around paying their dues, we're drawn into the song in such a way that we can understand what he's talking about.

It doesn't hurt of course that the band plays some of the most infectious honky-tonk style of country that I've heard in ages. They swing through every song with a joie de vivre that at the least will set you toes to tapping or get you up dancing. Yet at the same time the music doesn't prevent you from listening to what he has to say either. Which is a good thing because you wouldn't want to miss some of the song's lyrics no matter how much fun you're having with the music. In particular I like "They'll Only Play My Music When I'm Dead" where he takes a few pokes at the Nashville establishment and how they regulate the music that gets played. However he's not really bitter or angry about it, as he turns the song into a bit of a joke with stuff along the lines of if he wants to support his dear old mom he needs to eat some lead, because they'll only play his songs when he's dead.

Of course it doesn't hurt that all the members of the band can handle their instruments as well as anybody you've ever heard pick up a banjo, mandolin, guitar, or acoustic bass. While Beverley handles the lead vocals and acoustic guitar, Dan "BanjerDan" Mazer burns up leads on banjo, mandolin, and dobro, and Johnny Lawless lays down the rhythm with his double bass. As the core of the band these three are the old time equivalent of the rock and roll power trio in the way they can lay down honky-tonk country blues. While their sound is augmented by some friends on this disc, you can tell that even on their own these three would put on a great show. In fact they're so good that you don't even realize until the album's finished that they don't use a drum kit or any sort of percussion at all.

There are very few bands who call themselves country that I can stand listening to anymore, so coming across a band like J B Beverley & The Wayward Drifters is like finding a pocket of clean air in the middle of a rush hour traffic jam. What makes them so damn refreshing is the fact they aren't trying to imitate old time music by singing songs written hundreds of years ago, or singing about subjects they know nothing about like farming or hard rock mining. They sing about the world today set to music that's timeless and in voices that we can all relate to. Some of the edges might be rough enough for you shave yourself with, but that's part of what makes their sound so honest and their songs so real.

If you don't think that country music has to be accompanied by rhinestones and big hair and your sick and tired of songs written about a country you don't recognize, than you need to be listening to J B Beverley & The Wayward Drifters. This is country music that speaks to everybody, not just pretend cowboys who've never had to get their boots dirty.

Posted by Richard Marcus at 08:49 AM | Permalink

There's nothing like the sea air for rejuvenating you, so you'd figure an ocean voyage would be just what the doctor ordered for Emancipor Reece. The luckless servant of necromancers Bauchelain and Korbal Broach is in need of the tranquillity and peace that is supposedly offered to those who travel those wide open expanses. Sure he has gainful employment that takes him far away from his wife and the children she claims are his, but as we've seen in previous titles featuring him and his masters, Blood Follows and The Healthy Dead, working for necromancers hasn't been without its disadvantages.

Having to leave town in a hurry when their habits have disturbed the locals too much is the least of the tribulations that has driven Reece to find various means to render himself insensate. It was one such occasion which forced him to book passage for his masters and himself on a vessel not asking many questions about its passenger's reason for travel or recent history. Unfortunately for Reece the captain and crew of the good ship Suncurl haven't been completely forthcoming when it comes to their own provenance, meaning they're all in for some unpleasant surprises during the course of the voyage.

While not much can ruffle Bauchelain's equanimity, after all his travelling companion in an effort to compensate for the loss of his manhood (Broach is a eunuch) has constructed a child out of living organs that he's removed from other humans, even he is a little put out to find that not only has a lich manifested on board, but a god is after the little ship as well. While the lich, a being composed of a multitude of souls that manifests as the bodies of said souls mashed together, is trouble enough when it starts grabbing crew members in an effort to bulk up, the god and the reason it's chasing the ship could be more than even the combined talents of Bauchelain and Broach together can handle.

Welcome to author Steven Erikson's third book devoted to the adventures of three characters who played a small roll in his epic series The Malzan Book Of The Fallen. Published by Nightshade Books The Lees Of Laughter's End reunites readers with the two most likeable evil characters you're liable to ever meet. As long as you skirt over their nastier habits, and the fact that their very presence sends shivers up and down most people's spines, as evil necromancers go these two aren't such bad sorts, even when you get to know them. Why Bauchelain is probably one of the most urbane and witty types you'll ever meet. All right so he has any number of demons that he has summoned at his disposal, and could probably peel the flesh from your bone with a spell if he was so inclined, but everybody has their little foibles.

It's unfortunate that Korbal Broach doesn't share any of his partners more redeeming features when it comes to social interactions, but he's shy by nature and prefers to skulk in the shadows and avoids most company. On the other hand it's doubtful you'd want to meet him under those circumstances either, because he's usually out hunting for "components" to add to his child. So unless you're prepared to become an unwilling live organ donor, you'd best avoid dark allies when Korbal is in town.

Needless to say both gentlemen are also exceptionally handy to have on your side in a fight, so the crew of the Suncurl are quite prepared to overlook any and all of the duo's nastier habits when the screaming starts and crew members start vanishing in the hold of the ship. However even they can't prevent the lich from wrecking havoc and when the god shows up, from securing his prize. Yet in the end our erstwhile heroes and their faithful manservant come through this scrape relatively unscathed, and with enough of the ship and crew intact to continue their voyage.

Those who are familiar with Erikson's from the Malazan series have come to know and love his ability to create memorable characters and fascinating story lines. However, what they might not be as aware of is his very macabre sense of humour. It's not often an author can make the actions and behaviour of a blood thirsty monster funny, but listening in on the lich as its various souls complain, voice opinions, and generally argue amongst itself is as funny a bit of writing that will turn your stomach as you've probably ever read.

It's not just the demons who are fun to read about either, the motley assortment of crew are as strange and original as any of the odd characters Erikson has created to populate the fringes of his world in the past. The Captain and her three companions turn out to be something other than just your standard sea faring folk, being ex-members of a city guard who stole from the city they were supposed to be guarding and took to the sea in an effort to put their former employers behind them. Unfortunately aside from just stealing coin of the realm, the also lifted some statues from the treasury, which is what has attracted the attention of the god who is in hot pursuit of the ship.

While the sea voyage might not have agreed with Emancipor Reece so far, and the crew's numbers have been drastically reduced, those of us merely observing the action on board the good ship Suncurl are having a great time. I don't think I've read an author who can make gruesome as funny or bring it to life with such skill and wit as Erikson does in The Lees Of Laughter's End. Others might be as funny, but nobody can match him for intelligence and character creation. His ability to take the absurd to its logical conclusion - if a creature like a lich is made up of multiple souls it only makes sense that it would occasionally argue amongst itself - is what separates him from most others and keeps a reader in stitches.

If you've read other books set in the world of The Malazan Book Of The Fallen series, you'll appreciate this stand alone story featuring Bauchelain and Korbal Broach for the different view of the world it offers. However, even if you've not read anything else by Erikson, you'll find a lot to enjoy in this odd little tale. Originally published in England by PS Publishing, Nightshade Books has now made The Lees Of Laughter's End available to North American readers and it can be purchased either directly from their web-site or any discerning on line retailer.

Posted by Richard Marcus at 11:22 AM | Permalink

Perhaps it's not the style these days, but when I read a book I want to feel the cracks in the sidewalk underneath a character's feet as he walks down the street, smell the odours that waft out from the bakery she or he passes by on their morning walk, and feel the same cold wind they do bite my cheeks. Sure, it's all very well and good to let us know what things and people look like, but I want to experience the world and be immersed in it when I read. If I wanted to just look at something as a passive observer I'd watch television instead of reading a book.

Well, if you share any of that sentiment than you'll probably take as much pleasure in reading the latest offering from Carlos Ruiz Zafon, The Angel's Game, that was just published by Random House Canada. Set in Barcelona, the majority of the action takes place in the period leading up to the Spanish Civil War of the 1930's. The book opens in 1917 with our narrator, David Martin, recalling how it was that year, when he was seventeen, he was first paid for his writing. However, instead of this being a pleasant memory, he says from the moment a writer first sells a piece he is doomed and his soul has a price. When soul and price are mentioned in the first paragraph of a book, it's a good bet the story is going to have something to do with the forces of darkness and a descent into one type of Hell or another is in the cards.

However before we take that plunge Zafon makes sure we know why it could happen to David. Not only was he abysmally poor as a child, but he was raised by his alcoholic, ex-soldier, father. However, it's the fact that Zafon manages to capture the real horror of what poverty does to a child - takes away his or her expectations of anything good happening to them, that makes this important for the story. In fact it's a copy of Charles Dicken's Great Expectations that makes David realize that the idea of a poor person having expectations of any sort is ridiculous. For he's lucky that his father even allows him to attend school and learn to read and write. However, after beating David for wasting money by using electricity in order to read the Dickens novel, his father begins to have a change of heart and starts to allow David to buy books. But as David begins to have expectations of a relationship with him, his father is gunned down in front of him.

However, as a result of his father's death he meets the man who is to become his patron and mentor, Don Pedro Vidal. Vidal not only gets him a job at the newspaper he writes for, he's also responsible for that first paid writing assignment. When that job comes to an end it's Pedro who finds a publisher who employs David to write an ongoing series of crime fiction adventures. With an income assured, he's able to consider finding a place to live that's not a slum. Ever since he was a child David had been attracted to an old abandoned mansion whose prominent feature was a tower. As soon as he has the money to be able to afford it, he takes out a lease on the building and moves in.

Although he considers he long ago sold his artistic soul by agreeing to write pulp fiction, the selling of his own soul comes about in a slightly different manner. Almost immediately after his first story is published in the newspaper, David had started to receive mysterious letters congratulating him on his success. These turn out to be from a man who claims to be a book publisher who has a most unusual request; he wants to commission David to write him a religion. At first he dismisses the idea as crazy, but the publisher is persistent, and finally David agrees to the contract. Anyway, 100,000 francs is an awfully large amount of money for a years work.

Needless to say agreeing to the job is the beginning of his descent into his personal hell. It turns out that the previous occupant of where he lives died under very mysterious circumstances. When David begins to investigate he discovers that before he died the man had been working on a book for a mysterious publisher who had promised him 100,000 francs. David is drawn into a conspiracy that reaches into the highest ranks of society. The deeper he digs, the deeper he gets into trouble for as corpses start to pile up around him the police begin to blame him. However, he can't shake the feeling that his mysterious publisher is somehow at the root of all this and he's determined to get to the bottom of it all no matter what happens.

With The Angel's Game Zafon has created a multilayered treat for readers that incorporates all the best elements of gothic horror and murder mysteries while at the same time creating characters who are incredibly realistic. We watch how disappointment after disappointment pushes David into the arms of his tempter. For it's only when the last of his personal dreams and expectations are squashed that he surrenders. As David descends into darkness so does the book. For while the beginning of the book does contain some sadness, the death of his father, there are moments of genuine humour and an overall lightness of spirit that reflects David's initial optimism. As the story progresses the city itself begins to descend into darkness and gloom until the final climax is played out under a black sky streaked "with veins of red light".

Zafon has gone to great pains with this book to bring every scene to life in such a manner that as a reader you feel the cobblestones beneath your feet as David walks through the older parts of Barcelona. The city, and all the other environments in this book are as much characters, and are as well drawn, as the people who populate them. Aside from there not being a dull moment to be found throughout the length of The Angel's Game, its a marvellous depiction of one man's descent into darkness. It's all too easy to look at the character of David Martin and see parts of yourself reflected back, as you have to wonder how you would react if all of the expectations you had for your life were to slowly erode in front of your eyes. It's not often you'll find a book that's not only a page turner but also as thought provoking as this one. A rare combination that deserves to be savoured and read over and over again.

You can purchase a copy of The Angel's Game either directly from Random House Canada or from an on line retailer like Amazon.ca.

Posted by Richard Marcus at 05:30 AM | Permalink

I always find it very funny when someone says to me they really like "African Music" and then become almost insulted when I ask them which country's music they're talking about. I like to give people the benefit of the doubt and hope they're only stupid and not being deliberately insulting by implying that a continent filled with more countries, cultures, and peoples than North and South America combined could possibly be represented by one style of music. Still it's hard not to laugh at them when they become indignant when asked for specifics.

Of course that's being a little unfair as most types of music played in Africa, with the exception of popular genres, aren't specific to one country but to a region of the continent. Of course that's only because the borders of so many countries bear no relation to traditional tribal boundaries. As a result some people have found that they now live across the border from other members of their own tribe. While others, like the nomadic Tuareg, have found that travelling across their territory now involves crossing four or even five borders. Looking at a map of Africa, it's easy to understand why you wouldn't know the location of Guinea-Bissau. The tiny former Portuguese colony is crammed between Senegal to the north, Guinea to the south, Mali to the east, and the Atlantic ocean on the west. It's one of the most impoverished countries in the world as the majority of its people survive through subsistence farming.

Still, like other West African nations, they have their own musical history, and Kimi Djabate, is one of the contemporary links in a chain that extends back in time hundreds of years. Centuries ago his ancestors had been travelling musicians from Mali. The king, of what was then Guinea, loved their songs so much that he invited them to stay and offered them the territory of Tabato, where Djabate was born. Born into a family of Griots - musicians who are keep track of their tribe's history and tell the stories of the people through song - Djabate started playing music when he was three years old. His first instrument, the balafon (a type of xylophone), remains his primary instrument to this day. However as his forthcoming release, Karam July 28th, on the Cumbancha label shows, he's expanded his repertoire of instruments to include guitar and various types of percussion.

At the age of nineteen, in 1994, while touring Europe as part of the national musical and dance ensemble of Guinea-Bissau, Djabate decided to settle in Europe and has based himself out of Lisbon in Portugal ever since. Listening to the fifteen tracks on Karam, all of which he wrote, one can hear that while he has stayed attached to his musical roots, he has also reached out to graft on some new branches to create his own sound. While still at home he had been sent off to neighbouring territories to learn some of the regional differences available close at hand, but he also took it upon himself to learn about music that was from even further afield. Since landing in Europe he's continued that musical education and now you can hear traces of everything from Nigerian Afrobeat, blues, jazz, to Cuban being used when appropriate to the material at hand.

Of course like all Griots, first and foremost Djabate is a vocalist. As it was their responsibility to be able to sing a family's or tribe's history, Griots by necessity have voices that make you want to listen to them. However this doesn't mean being loud or overpowering, it means having a voice that draws you into a song. Djabate isn't going to overpower anyone with voice, but there's something about his melodic tone that captivates the ear and holds your attention. What makes this even more impressive is the fact that the majority of the material on Karam isn't sung in English. Yet, in spite of that, you find yourself wanting to try and hang on to every word he sings.

Perhaps it's the subtle power of his music that ensnares the listener. With the balafon and acoustic guitar switching as lead instruments the overall sound of this record is far less rhythm heavy than one would probably expect. In fact, there are occasions that the music comes close to being too understated, but is saved from being trance or sleep inducing by Djabate's precise playing of the balafon. Unlike a drum the sound of this instrument is very mellow and instead of propelling a song, it moves with it, emphasizing and breaking up the flow like punctuation does a sentence. Grown accustomed to popular music that's pushed forward by a full drum kit supported by electric bass it takes a while for our ears to get used to the type of interplay of rhythm and melody employed by Djabte's, but once you do you'll find it just as effective as any other style.

Although living in Europe Djabate's focus remains firmly fixed on Africa. He sings about the social and political realities facing his people including the rights of women, the fight against poverty, and about freedom. The last is particularly important to his homeland as its history has been checkered with civil wars and military coups since their independence in 1963. With one of lowest per capita mean incomes, around seven hundred American dollars per year, and an average life expectancy of around forty-five, Guinea-Bissau is one of the poorest countries in the world. What little infrastructure it had was destroyed during a civil war in 1998-99, and a military coup in 2003 has only increase its instability. As a Griot Djabate tells the story of his people in his music, and right now its not a pretty picture.

This goes a long way towards explaining the subdued tone of this disc. It would be hard to be too exuberant when singing about those topics. Yet even so the music isn't depressing to listen too. While we may not be able to understand the exact words that he's singing, the tone of his voice communicates that he has hope that things can improve. In spite of what I referred to as the subdued tone, there is an infectious quality to the music that gradually encourages you to move to the music. Normally you're not going to want to dance to songs that only bemoan fate, as the music can't help but reflect the spirit of the lyrics, so the fact Djabte's can inspire you to move tells you while things might not be so good right now there's no reason to give up hope for the future.

Kimi Djabate, like so many other West African singers we're hearing today, comes from a long line of singer/storytellers, and he carries on that role with his own music. However, instead of merely speaking for one village, or even one family he speaks for his country and his continent. His use of music from traditions other than his own and his softly insistent voice combine to ensure that while we may not understand what he is saying, we are not only compelled to listen but take away a good sense of what he is talking about with each song. Don't worry if you've never heard of Guinea-Bissau, or know next to nothing about the north-west of Africa, with people like Kimi Djabate around as long as you're willing to listen you'll learn quickly enough.

Posted by Richard Marcus at 10:42 AM | Permalink

It's probably a hangover from watching too many Hollywood movies. but when I think of Eastern Europe I can't help seeing in my mind's eye a dark and mysterious landscape. Gloomy forests climbing the sides of sharp mountains suddenly give way to deep lakes under whose surface lie mysteries better left undisturbed. It's hard to imagine the sun ever shining in this environment, let alone it ever being daytime, as if it exists in a state of permanent twilight. It's in woods like these you'll find the gingerbread cottage of "Hansel and Gretel", or perhaps chance upon a girl in a red cloak making her way to her grandmother's house.

However, in spite of the darkness, there's also a haunting beauty which can take your breath away in the same way that plunging into an icy mountain stream will leave you gasping for air and in pleasure at the same time. Yet it's a beauty that seems tinged with sorrow, like a heartbreaking poem or song. Perhaps it's an overly romantic view of something I know very little about, but it's also based on knowing some of the history of the region and the hardships faced by a great many of those who have lived there. Subsistence farms carved out of available land, continual invasions by one army or another, and the twentieth century's contribution to horror - ethnic cleansing after the fall of Yugoslavia and the death camps of WWll.

A new release by vocalist Lily Storm, If I Had A Key To The Dawn on her own Songbat Records label, of primarily traditional songs from that region shows, no matter the country or language, the music does nothing to dispel those impressions. Whether Russian, Armenian, Albanian, Romanian, Bulgarian or Hungarian each of the songs she performs on this disc are beautiful but hint at sorrow in their music and lyrics. Yet for some reason there is nothing depressing about them either, as the honesty of emotion exhibited by each song is beautiful onto itself.

One of the hardest things about singing in a language, or as in this cases languages, that your audience is not going to understand is to communicate with them the nature of the song. Although Storm has included translations for all the lyrics they aren't really needed to make these songs work for us as she shows herself capable of expressing their overall feeling with her voice. What I really appreciated about her singing is this is the type of situation where a singer could very easily give in to the temptation to over emote in order to get their message across. Storm not only refrains from doing that, she is also able to imbue her voice with character that gives the listener an idea of the story behind the song as well as the emotional content.

As for the material itself they remind you that folk music can be in the right hands a genuine expression of a people's experience. Whether a lullaby or a love song these tracks are devoid of the sentimentality that are the hallmark of so many contemporary songs that deal with similar themes. First of all they employ poetic imagery to convey their ideas that you would never find in even the best folk songs in North America let along most popular music today. Not only does this give the material greater emotional depth, it also allows for an ambiguity of meaning that makes you have to think about the song's real meaning.

The opening song of the disc for instance, a traditional Ukrainian lullaby called simply "Sleep Child" is only two verses long, but contains a world of meaning. A mother tells her child to sleep and she will cover it with leafs and leave it by the water. From Moses on down there's a long history of hero legends where the baby is set adrift by its mother and goes on to become a great leader after being rescued. However, the same lyrics could also express a young mother's frustration and resentment at being tied down to a squalling baby and her desire to be free of the noisy and demanding thing. Listening to the way that Storm sings the song you notice a certain amount of ambiguity in her voice, and a definite lack of anything that can be construed as heroic. While you wouldn't be able to discern the alternative meaning from just hearing her performance, you can tell that this isn't your typical lullaby.

Of course having the translations also makes a world of difference when it comes to appreciating some of the nuances of material. The sixth song on the recording, a Hungarian piece whose title is translated as simply "Love, Love" is both an ode to the pain of love in general and a long ago love in particular. "And for my love of long ago/what I wouldn't do/the water of the sea/I'd scoop out with a spoon/and from the bottom of the sea/I'd gather small pearls/and for my love of long ago/I'd make a pearl wreath".

What starts out sounding like one of those poems that are describing the lengths somebody would go to in order to express their devotion for their lover, is quickly turned into something else by the last word in the song. The singer isn't going to drain the ocean one spoonful at a time to make a necklace celebrating love, no, it's to make a wreath to place on its grave. Of course that the music accompanying the lyrics sounds like a dirge, and Storm sounds like she's just lost her best friend, gives you a good idea of the singer's mood and their opinion of love even without understanding what she's saying.

Probably when most of us think of the music of Eastern Europe we either think of the colourful and exuberant folk dances of the Ukraine, the fiery music of the Romani, or perhaps even polkas. If I Had A Key To The Dawn, from the atmospheric photographs included in the accompanying booklet and on the cover, to Lily Storm's magnificent singing, brings a different side of that part of the world to life. Listening to the music on this disc reminds you that just as there is beauty to be found in the darkest part of a forest, it can also be found in the expression of some of our darkest feelings. A song from the heart is a beautiful thing no matter what language its in or what its about. You may not have thought that a broken heart could be as beautiful as a lover's kiss before, but after listening to this disc you'll see how it's possible, and you'll understand how tears are just as special as a smile.

Posted by Richard Marcus at 08:37 AM | Permalink