Toshinori Kondo was a Japanese trumpeter.
He worked in avant-garde jazz and jazz fusion.
Kondo also frequently collaborated with Bill Laswell.
The album above also features a a cover of “Sun Is Shining”, around minute 17.
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RIP Bunny Lee (1941 – 2020)
Bunny Lee was a Jamaican record producer and one of the major forces in the Jamaican music industry, producing hits throughout his long career.
His song “Wet Dream”, interpreted by Max Romeo, became popular in 1968 despite being banned on the BBC; and Eric Donaldson’s “Cherry Oh Baby” would be covered by the Rolling Stones.
Lee also produced the perennial riddim “My Conversation”.
The compilation ‘If Deejay Was Your Trade’ (1994), which was the debut release of the reggae compilation label Blood and Fire, consists of a selection of his productions from the period 1974-1977.
The documentary ‘I Am The Gorgon – Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee and the Roots of Reggae’ is in full on YouTube.
RIP Johnny Nash (1940 – 2020)
Johnny Nash was an African-American singer-songwriter, best known for his 1972 hit “I Can See Clearly Now“.
On the Belgian popcorn scene, popular recordings of Nash included “Some of Your Lovin'”, “Old Man River”, “Moment of Weakness”, “Kisses”, “I’m Leaving”, “I’m Counting On You” and “Don’t Take Away Your Love”.
RIP Eddie Van Halen (1955 – 2020)
Eddie Van Halen was a Dutch-American guitarist and songwriter working in hard rock. He enjoyed crossover success with “Jump” (1983), a song that was discouraged from being broadcast on American radio because during 9/11 Americans had witnessed too many jumpers.
In my universe he is known for his guitar solo on “Beat It” (1982) by Michael Jackson.
RIP Thomas Jefferson Byrd (1950 – 2020)
Thomas Jefferson Byrd was an American actor who worked several times with director Spike Lee.
RIP Kenzō Takada (1939 – 2020)
Kenzō Takada was a Japanese fashion designer. He was, with Yamamoto, the most famous Japanese fashion designer of the 1980s.
Some of my best friends are in fashion. The fashion and arts scene always threw the best parties here in Antwerp, as I suppose, they do anywhere around the world.
Of all the arts, fashion probably is at the same time the most vacuous and the most embodied of the arts; the most ephemeral and the most ‘out there’.
RIP Mac ‘In the Ghetto’ Davis (1942 – 2020)
Mac Davis was American singer-songwriter best-known for writing “In the Ghetto“.
RIP Quino (1932 – 2020)
Quino was an Argentine cartoonist best-known for his satirical comic strip Mafalda which ran from 1964 to 1973.
Mafalda is a 6-year-old girl. On the one hand she is a real child who hates soup and loves pancakes. Yet, at the same time she is very much concerned with humanity and world peace. An political episode of Mafalda that is often cited is the one with the ‘south-up map orientation’.
Umberto Eco wrote a piece on Mafalda when she made her book debut in Italy with Mafalda la contestataria (1968), ‘Mafalda the rebel’.
In the same period, she is also on the cover of another Italian book, Libro dei bambini terribili per adulti masochisti, (Book of Terrible Children for Masochistic Adults), also from 1968.
“Paris sleeps in the arms of the Seine”
Following the death of Juliette Gréco, I watched the 1951 French film Sous le ciel de Paris by Julien Duvivier.
It’s undervalued film. It begins with an exhilarating fly-over of Paris by night, topped with a voice-over mentioning all these souls in the city for which fate has a thing or two in store.
The ensuing action takes place over a period of 24 hours while many of the participants lives intermingle, making it an early example of hyperlink cinema.
RIP Juliette Gréco (1927 – 2020)
Juliette Gréco was a French actress and singer.
She first appeared on my radar in 2010 in the Gainsbourg movie Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life where she is played by Anna Mouglalis.
Below the song “L’Accordéon” (1962) in which she plays her own black-clad body as an instrument. Very French and sensual.
While cycling to work, it dawned upon me that “L’Accordéon” reminded me of the Mary Poppins song “Chim Chim Cher-ee” (1964).