This French artist is writing powerful and poetic music. One part electronica one part pop, it is a fascinating world she creates, albeit a melancholy one. Below is a live performance but check out the studio track that can be heard on her website.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Franco & Le TPOK Jazz
Born in 1938 in what is now Kinshasa, DRC, Francois L'Okanga La Ndju Pene Luambo Makiadi, a.k.a. Franco had a 35 year recording career that produced hundreds of singles and nearly 150 albums. He was known as "The Sorcerer of the Guitar," and without any formal training invented his own style, which when combined with his penchant for poetic, and often political lyrics made him perhaps the most popular artist of his generation in his native country and throughout sub-Saharan Africa.
The Sterns label has an excellent compendium of his music entitled, Francophonic--Africa's Greatest--A Retrospective that covers Franco's entire career which I heartily recommend. The following song, Liberte is one of the songs included.
Double Rainbow
By now you've all heard of the Gregory Brothers and their auto-tune the news project which has so many catchy (and hilarious) tunes. That being said, I dare you not to listen to the double rainbow song one more time.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Paco de Lucia
Born in 1947, this Spanish guitarist is arguably the best ever. While I know that there are some that reject the Modern Flamenco style of playing that he promotes, (and I am interested in that debate) please just watch the clip and be grateful to have had the opportunity to have heard this level of virtuosity. This is one of my favorites:
Flower of Scotland
The Scottish national anthem sung by the lads that wrote the song, The Corries. They have a tremendous body of folk music and it is hard to choose just one song to post, but this is certainly their flagship tune. Alba Gu Brath, as they say over there.
Garota de Ipanema, The Girl from Ipanema
Truly one of the greatest songs ever written made famous by the 1964 jazz album Getz/Gilberto by Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto.
Who is the girl? Apparently she actually exists, and is called Helo Pinheiro, but that isn't very interesting. The telling part is that Pinheiro was the muse for what Vinicius de Moraes, the man who wrote the original Portuguese lyrics called,
- "the paradigm of the young Carioca: a golden teenage girl, a mixture of flower and mermaid, full of light and grace, the sight of whom is also sad, in that she carries with her, on her route to the sea, the feeling of youth that fades, of the beauty that is not ours alone — it is a gift of life in its beautiful and melancholic constant ebb and flow."
- Keep that description in mind the next time you listen to this song, or even better, listen to it right now, here:
Insanely Long Hiatus
The last time I posted on this blog was over THREE YEARS ago! It's unconscionable, because I've heard a lot of great music over that long period. And so, to make up for lost time and just to challenge myself, I'm going to do my best to post 36 posts in the next week or so. That equals one a month for the last three years and will get this blog's karma back in order.
After that, it's going to be a post a week at least!
Stay tuned!
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