Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Yvonne Chaka Chaka
"Umqombothi (African Beer)"
Hotel Rwanda soundtrack
(Commotion, 2004; rec. 1993)
Last year I had the pleasure of seeing Yvonne Chaka Chaka sing at an outdoor festival in the Gauteng province of South Africa. The crowd went nuts when the Princess of Africa hit the stage; even Thulisile, our hilariously outspoken guide, unfolded her arms and started shakin' it to be breakin' it. Granted, I don't remember much of Chaka Chaka's actual performance because of too much "African beer" (actually, it was too many Norwegian Hansas), and because we were too busy droppin' legs in a big circle of peeps we had just met but felt like we had known for years. The evening was my favorite among the eight I spent in South Africa because we took to heart what Chaka Chaka sings on "Umqombothi": "Everybody, let's boogie together."
Awkward transition time: In 1994 people didn't boogie together in Rwanda.
Hotel Rwanda is an amazing film, and while I don't usually care about awards or awards shows, I wish this flick had been nominated for best picture by the Oscars because it would have stimulated more interest in the project. I haven't been so emotionally battered from a movie since The Pianist---another story about genocide, whose characters ask, as they do in Hotel Rwanda, "Don't worry, the world will come soon. How can it ignore what's going on here?"
Read more about what happened in Rwanda:
>We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories From Rwanda
by Philip Gourevitch
>Shake Hands With the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda
by Romeo A. Dallaire
>Various titles
Buy Yvonne Chaka Chaka CDs from Stern's Music.
Buy the Hotel Rwanda soundtrack from Amazon or iTunes.Posted by CP | Link |
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
For Immediate Release
January 19, 2005
MSN Music Makes Historic Songs From Smithsonian Folkways Recordings Available Online for the First Time Archive Includes Nearly 35,000 Songs From Legends Such as Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Pete Seeger, Doc Watson, Ella Jenkins and More
This is great. The Smithsonian (as well as the Library of Congress) has so much material in its vaults, and crazy stuff at that, but there's no place for full CD releases of much of it because it's cost prohibitive to mass produce niche-music discs. This solves that. I love the digital age! And thermal underwear!
MSN still needs to link the music releases to descriptions/details because so many Folkways releases are just baffling (in a good way), and the interface is a bit clunky (is there a way to list just the Folkways releases from one genre and not get everything in the MSN catalog in that genre as well?), but these things will likely be ironed out down the road as more and more releases are added.
Check below the press release to see the Suburbs' Guide to Smithsonian Folkways Recordings on MSN:
An alliance announced today between MSN Music and Smithsonian Folkways Recordings will make tens of thousand of historic songs from legendary performers of folk, blues, jazz and world music available online for the first time, allowing music fans to discover a diverse world of music and sound. The Smithsonian Folkways catalog of nearly 35,000 tracks, which is only available for download through MSN Music in the United States (http://music.msn.com/smithsonian), features legendary artists Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Lucinda Williams, Big Bill Broonzy, Lightnin' Hopkins, Ella Jenkins and more. The archive also features nonmusical tracks including speeches, poetry and natural sounds from around the world.
"The music in the Smithsonian Folkways archive is a strong reminder of the incredible emotion in authentic roots music," said Rob Bennett, senior director of MSN Entertainment at Microsoft Corp. "The music in this catalog has influenced countless artists -- including Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Jerry Garcia and Kurt Cobain -- yet it's often almost impossible to find. We're excited to bring these important artists and their work to a larger audience through MSN Music."
"The success of our Anthology of American Folk Music, edited by Harry Smith, which won two GRAMMY Awards in 1997, showed us that there is a substantial audience for roots music," said Dan Sheehy, director of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. "The problem is that people can't always find this music. It's not on the radio, and many retailers don't carry it. We're thrilled to work with MSN Music to give people an easy way to hear music by artists they may have only read about and discover others they may have never heard of at all."
To aid in catalog exploration, MSN Music will regularly feature articles from recording artists and music scholars that celebrate the wealth of diverse musical, verbal and natural sound content. "The catalog is so huge, we have the ability to continually add features and editorial content to help music fans explore and discover the many hidden gems and unique tracks that make this addition to MSN Music so special," Bennett said.
Beyond the wide range of music, the archive also features an extensive collection of nonmusical content from the United States and around the world. The collected works include poetry and historical oratory, natural sound such as "Sounds of North American Frogs," and quirky tracks and audio documentaries such as "Speech After Removal of the Larynx" and "Sounds of the Office," recorded in 1964.
After a quick scan of the catalog, the Suburbs recommends a handful of releases to begin:
>Drums of Defiance: Maroon Music From the Earliest Free Black Communities of Jamaica
(They still need to add Music of the Maroons of Jamaica.)
>Street and Gangland Rhythms, Beats and Improvisations by Six Boys in Trouble
>Vox Humana: Alfred Wolfsohn's Experiments in Extension of Human Vocal Range
>Electronic Music: From Razor Blades to Moog
>Calypso Awakening: From the Emory Cook Collection
> Lord Creator's Calypso, Calypso in New York, Calypso Travels and There's a Brown Girl in the Ring and Other Children's Calypso Songs
>Abayudaya: Music From the Jewish People of Uganda
>Kora Music From the Gambia
>Discover Indonesia
>Sounds of a South African Homestead
The Suburbs recommends visiting the Smithsonian Folkways homepage for more info; you can also buy custom-made CDs of material from the Folkways vaults (including tons of stuff not on MSN yet) and scan all the releases at once in a particular genre. The Suburbs also recommends writing in the third person, gas-log fireplaces, and Lashish restaurant in Dearborn, Michigan.
Posted by CP | Link |
Thursday, January 13, 2005
Bob Marley & the Wailers
"Selassie Is the Chapel"
Fy-Ah Fy-Ah: The Jad Masters 1967-1970
(Universal, 2004)
Elvis Presley & the Wailers
"Crying in the Chapel"
(bootleg 7-inch, 2004)
"Fuckin' love song here, son."
That's what the King says at the end of what must be a modern mashup of ol' Elvis croonin' the Orioles' 1953 hit "Crying in the Chapel" over the Wailers' "Satisfy My Soul." If there's one thing that Elvis knows more than love, son, it's Rasta biznezz. And snacks.
The tune came out on a limited edition 7-inch last year, with Presley's "In the Ghetto" vox laid over "Taurus Song" by Sound Dimension on the flip.
"Selassie Is the Chapel" is Marley's take on the Orioles' song, and it was originally pressed on 26 7-inch records, half of which were sent to Ethiopia as a gift for Emperor Haile Selassie. The rewritten words are credited to legendary Rasta leader Mortimo Planno.
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The story floating around yesterday was that Rita Marley will exhume Bob's remains and move him to Ethiopia. In the Gleaner today she denies it. In related news, Lisa Marie has offered to sell Elvis' corpse for a buck fitty.
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Short films and tunes of a pre-worldwide fame Bob Marley working with R&B singer Jimmy Norman (who co-wrote "Time Is on My Side," famously covered by Mick, Keef & da Boyz).Posted by CP | Link |
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
Konono No. 1
"Mama Liza" edit
Congotronics
(Crammed Discs, 2005)
I finally got my hands on this Konono No. 1 CD (thx, Marc!), and it lived up to every expectation. Because it was recorded in studio conditions the sound is much fuller than the live disc on Terp that I wrote about recently, but the weird distortions and otherworldlyness of the whole Konono vibe in very much intact. (I lopped off the last four minutes of the usually 10-minute long "Mama Liza" because my bandwidth for the month is already tight. Besides---BUY THIS CD.)
Here's a letter I received from Vincent Kenis, the talented producer who recorded Konono and the man behind Crammed Discs' forthcoming series of Congotronics releases, explaining how he came across the band and what went into making the CD:
I first heard the group in 1979 on a France Culture broadcast and was blown away. Soon after I played the music to Congolese musician Ray Lema, claiming rather provokingly that this was "the Congolese music of the future." A while later we met in a studio where he was preparing his new album. Without a word, he handed me the headphones... the track he was working on featured a synthesized imitation of Konono's likembe sound. I also did my own interpretation of Konono when playing guitar on Zazou/Bikaye's Noir et Blanc album (1983). The France Culture recordings, produced by Bernard Treton, came out in 1985 on Radio France's label Ocora (Musiques Urbaines a Kinshasa). Only 15 years later did I finally get a chance to see the group live.
In 1989 I went to Kinshasa & looked for Konono No. 1 and Muyamba Nyunyi (also featured on Treton's tapes) but couldn't find them. I did meet Swede Swede, another "tradi-modern" group with whom I recorded the album Toleki Bango in Brussels the following year -- this was my first job as a producer, the second being Adventures in Afropea by Zap Mama. In Kin again in 1996 I was told that Konono No. 1 had ceased their activities and were scattered between Congo and Angola. Then in 2000 the president of their fan club told me that the group was expected to return from Angola soon. I left a note and promised I'd be back in a few months. In July Le Tout Puissant Likembe Konono No. 1 was ready for an audition, complete with 3 electric likembes, a drumkit made of hub caps, and a PA system made of two "lance-voix" ("voice-throwers," i.e. megaphones used by the Belgian colonizers before independence to diffuse radio broadcasts in the streets) which were probably the same ones featured on the 1978 recordings. I like to think that Konono No. 1 partly owes its resurrection to me -- but I suppose this is a favorite fantasy of all producers!
In 2002 my friend Tony Vander Eecken convinced Alain Weber and La Cite de la Musique in Paris to invite them for a concert the following year. Soon after I was in Kinshasa to record Folkas, a Kasaian all-star group including Muyamba Nyunyi. I planned to record a Konono CD live in Europe but just in case something went wrong I recorded the group at the Centre Culturel Francais a few days before I left Kinshasa.
The recordings were done outside, in 16 tracks, using a Macintosh G4 laptop computer -- a first under these latitudes. This was a risky choice but it turned out to work flawlessly -- actually a hard disk is much less sensitive to dust, humidity and power spikes than a digital tape recorder. Plus you can backup immediately... Mingiedi, the lead likembe player, wanted to use the Twin Reverb amp I had brought from Belgium. One of the musicians who spoke a bit of French translated: Mingiedi needed a "clear sound." I feared a tragic cultural misunderstanding. I accepted his choice though obviously I'd rather have him use the equipment he was familiar with. We recorded one song but the music wasn't really happening. Before the second take, I surreptitiously inserted a guitar distortion pedal on Mingiedi's likembe. When he started playing I saw a big smile on his face... and from then on the music took off.
This episode reminded me of an interview of Belgian jazz guitarist Rene Thomas I had read in the Melody Maker in the early 70s: when asked what he thought about Jimi Hendrix he went into a very embarrassing rant about early Delta bluesmen not needing all this electronic shit... a few weeks later I nevertheless went to see him in concert, he had a tiny Burns amp, the sound was gorgeous, a lot of feedback and nice distortion, very Hendrixian... Rene controlled it well and apparently enjoyed it very much, not bothering to analyze what exactly he enjoyed -- just like Mingiedi.
Computer-based recording enabled me to take the "studio" in my hotel room right after the session and do rough mixes with the help of the musicians, making sure they liked what they heard. The bass track was found to be a bit weak so I tried different tricks to give it some body. I accidentally ended up with a big reggae bass sound. Everybody was excited and wanted it on the record. The event opened thrilling new perspectives for me: after all, sound is sound, rhythm is rhythm, some things work and some don't, regardless of the cultural background -- and it's so much better to navigate between sonic pitfalls together with the musicians and get to an enlightened agreement, so to speak, rather than deciding alone in a vacuum what their music should sound like... and, more often than not, restraining oneself from doing too crazy things by fear of killing the group's "authenticity." I planned to do the final mixes of Konono's CD with Konono, if possible, to get that exciting feedback.
Konono arrived in Paris in February 2003. Their concert was well received but personally I was a bit disappointed: the "lance-voix" had stayed home, the sound engineer from Cite de la Musique had bypassed the likembes hand-made pickups because their extremely high output distorted his desk and nobody had told him this wasn't necessarily a bad thing... As a result, the group sounded nothing like in Kinshasa. Also, everybody in the group looked very contrived, wearing flowery uniforms in the style of official folklore groups from the Mobutu era... except their 'president' who stood still on the side of the stage in a dark suit, a pink folder under his arm. A few concerts in Holland fared better, generating a lot of excitement among the rock oriented but sparse audience. Unfortunately none of these venues was suitable for live recording, except the Paradiso, where some missing members had to be replaced by musicians recruited at the last minute, an interesting experience but not representative of the "real" Konono. Unfortunately the group left Europe without having been recorded live properly.
Listening back to the Kinshasa session and comparing it to the European gigs, I had no regrets: this was the best Konono music I had heard so far; I had everything I needed for a great CD. The problem was to promote that CD in the absence of the group: since Congolese star Papa Wemba had been arrested for smuggling fake musicians in Europe, chances to get Belgian visas for any Congolese group were zero, and would be for a while... also, as I said before, I really wanted to mix the album in Kinshasa with the musicians, and the new computer I wanted for this (a Macintosh G5) just came out and needed to be tested before I could risk to rely on it exclusively, since there are no reliable recording studios in Kinshasa. So I decided to wait for a while.
When it turned out that I wouldn't be able to travel to Kinshasa in time for the record to be ready before 2005, I finally decided to mix it at home, just like if I was in Kinshasa. The G5 / Logic Pro / Genelecs 1030 combination turned out to be very reliable and inspiring for mixing. I kept the original balance and the bass sound from the hotel room session, just added some subliminal magic and a few breaks... Luckily Konono was very satisfied with the result, but I definitely plan to mix the rest of the Congotronics series in Kinshasa with the collaboration of the musicians.
The next CD will come out late spring and feature a few songs of Folkas (the final name of the group hasn't been decided yet) and at least five other amplified traditional groups. We'll possibly ask some remixers to contribute. Maybe it'll be a CD+DVD.
As for Konono, they definitely will be touring Europe this summer.
Of course I'm at your disposal should you need more info.
Best regards,
Vincent Kenis
Crammed Discs and associated labels
www.crammed.bePosted by CP | Link |
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
Nas & Rising Son
"Thief's Theme" remix
Street's Disciple (U.K. edition)
(Columbia, 2004)
You can't beat fan pencils.
Nas held a contest to find a U.K. rapper who could hold his own on this remix. Out of 2,000 entries he picked Rising Son. Dunno nothing about him, but I like. (Though it could be delirium from the flu & a 100-degree fever that's making me dig it.)
Nas at So Urban:
Are there any English acts you like from the old school?
"I didn't know Loose Ends was from here! Also Phil Collins. And then, apart from Bob Marley and Marvin Gaye, Sade and Slick Rick are two of my favourite artists ever. "
How's that for street cred? Nasir big ups Loose Ends & Phil Collins! ("Yo, EMF is from here? Like, 'Unbelieveable' EMF? Get out!")
Posted by CP | Link |
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Who cork the dance?
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