Category Archives: music

World music classics #51, 52 and 53


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Ethiopiques is a series of compact discs featuring Ethiopian and Eritrean singers and musicians, best-known for its musical compositions “Erè Mèla Mèla”[1] by Mahmoud Ahmed; and “Yegelle Tezeta”[2] and “Yékèrmo Sèw”[3] by Mulatu Astatke. The music was internationally popularized by Jim Jarmusch when he used a number of songs by Astatke from Ethiopiques Volume 4 (see top) in his film Broken Flowers[4].

“Yegelle Tezeta” is the grooviest track of the three, one most likely to elicit a dance floor response.

Click the numbers to hear the songs/see the trailer.

Addendum

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8ZO3bzEqE4]

Dipsetmuthafucka dances to Astatke

Also, Jahsonic fave Dipsetmuthafucka used a Astatke for a clip he did in Brussels (40 km away from where I live).

And speaking of Brussels, cinephiles, get thee post haste to the Écran Total festival playing all summer at the Cinéma Arenberg.

Cheikha Rimitti (1923 – 2006)

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qiu2mgIMkNQ]

I discover that Cheikha Rimitti (1923 – 2006)[1], queen of Raï has died.

Arab music is a whole universe in itself, its connection to world music and world culture obvious from this map.

Here is an excellent piece by Farid El-Atrash [2]

My first foray on this blog in Arab music[3].

Our first exposure to Arab music in the Western world of the late 20th century was Ofra Haza‘s “Im Nin’Alu“[5][6] song, which was sampled by rap duo Eric B. & Rakim in their single “Paid In Full“(“this is a journey into sound”)[7].

Sonny Okosuns (1947 – 2008)

Sonny Okosuns (1947 – May 24 2008) was a Nigerian singer and musician.

He is known for his contributions to the Sun City album and for his African reggae

Okosuns first came to international attention with the 1977 composition “Fire in Soweto[1]“.

Please listen to “Tire Ni Oluwa”[2], which is a groovier track.

Speaking of African reggae, Nina Hagen released a single of that name in 1979, of which a twelve inch mix was also released. This is the seven inch or album version:

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM6QRjzE5gw]

“African Reggae” (1979) Nina Hagen

From her album Unbehagen

“African Reggae” is WMC #50, this nobrow track appeals to both the punk and the black music crowd and would not be out of place in the German opera category, although probably only for its formal qualities, i.e. the voice of Hagen. The B-side to “African Reggae” was Lucky Number, originally recorded by Lene Lovich [3], Hagen covered the song the following year[4]. Hagen’s version was spunkier.

Solstice and WMC #50

Solstice

Round about this time tomorrow, I mean somewhere around an hour and a half before midnight tomorrow, or 23 hours from now, it will be solstice, the longest day of the year.

Aristotle quotes the solstice as a moment of self-reflection:

For all men begin, as we said, by wondering that things are as they are, as they do about self-moving marionettes, or about the solstices or the incommensurability of the diagonal of a square with the side. —Aristotle

The music I will be remembering this solstice is American jazz singer Andy Bey‘s “Round Midnight”[1], which some of you may know in Amy Winehouse‘s version [2]. The song, in Bey’s version is WMC #50. “River Man” of my previous post reminded me of Andy Bey, who did his own interpretation of “River Man,”

video

Andy Bey‘s “Round Midnight”[1]

video
Amy Winehouse‘s version [2]
But it really gets bad,
’round midnight.

Incidentally, here is Bey’s version of “River Man” mentioned in my previous post.

Nick Drake @ 60

video

“River Man” from Nick Drake‘s 1969 album Five Leaves Left

Nicholas Rodney Drake (June 19, 1948 – November 25, 1974) was an English singer-songwriter and musician best known for his acoustic, autumnal songs. Although he failed to find a wide audience during his lifetime, Drake’s work has since grown steadily in stature, to the extent that he is now widely considered one of the most influential English singer-songwriters of the last 50 years. He commited suicide aged 27.

“River Man” is World Music Classic #49. The track is also featured on the 2005 compilation album Late Night Tales: The Flaming Lips.

Jeffrey Lee Pierce @50 and WMC #48

Jeffrey Lee Pierce (June 27, 1958 – March 31, 1996) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. He was one of the founding members of the 1980s punk band The Gun Club. He would have turned 50 today if he hadn’t exchanged the temporary for the eternal in his late thirties.

The Gun Club injected punk rock with doses of blues and country music. Pierce’s wailing vocals were an ideal delivery for his songs, which generally had a spooky, haunted quality.

Fire of Love was their debut album from whence came “Sex Beat,” released in 1981 on Ruby Records. “Sex Beat” is World Music Classic #48.

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMdYi8pWPiw]
“Sex Beat” by The Gun Club

Choreography by Dipsetmuthafucka.

I’ve mentioned “Sex Beats” before here and the most memorable line of the song is: “We can f*** forever but you will never get my soul.”

Jello Biafra @50

Happy birthday Jello Biafra, former lead singer of the Dead Kennedys. In the late 1980s, the band was embroiled in an obscenity trial in the US over the 1985 Frankenchrist album, which included a “biomannerist” poster with art that depicted penises, “Penis Landscape“[1] by H. R. Giger, a work in the same vein as jahsonic fave Yoshifumi Hayashi.

Interviewed by Jools Holland:

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVrTW7AUkoM]

Bill Coday (1942 – 2008)

Photo unidentified of Bill Coday

Bill Coday (May 10, 1942 in Coldwater, Mississippi – June 8, 2008) was a blues and soul musician popular on the British Northern soul scene. As a young man he began singing in juke joints in and around Blytheville, Arkansas. Later, Coday travelled to Chicago, Illinois, and there one night he was “discovered” by Denise LaSalle. LaSalle signed Coday to her Crajon label, and introduced Coday to Willie Mitchell of Memphis, Tennessee. Mitchell’s reputation in the soul and soul blues music industry includes producing such artists as Al Green and Ann Peebles. Mitchell agreed to work with Coday, and a result of this relationship, the team of Mitchell and Coday produced songs that included “Sixty Minute Teaser,” “I Get High on Your Love,” “You’re Gonna Want Me,” and “Get you Lies Straight.”

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCle3p43m3I]

“Sixty Minute Teaser”

Barry Lederer (1944 – 2008)

I seem to have become somewhat of an obituarist.

The pantheon of disco DJs lost one of its demigods when Barry Lederer (September 9 1944 – May 31 2008) died earlier this week. Now you may ask, if Lederer was a demigod, who were the true gods in disco-DJ-mythology? Most commonly cited in this category are David Mancuso, François Kevorkian, Larry Levan, Walter Gibbons, Francis Grasso, Nicky Siano, Tom Moulton and Tee Scott.

In a 2000s interview[1] with disco-disco.com, Lederer noted that his favorite records included:

Click the footnotes to hear the music.