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Posts Tagged ‘music’

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Raul Midon

Posted by Richard on October 2, 2007

I saw Raul Midon on the Tonight Show last Thursday night, performing "Pick Somebody Up" from his new album, A World Within A World.

I. Was. Blown. Away.

Simply fantastic. Best performance I've seen in a long, long time. Midon (it's actually Midón, with the acute accent, but even his website uses a plain o in the text; more search-friendly, I guess) is the son of an Argentinian father and African-American mother. His music blends flamenco, jazz, soul, pop, world music, and more. He'll remind you at times of Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Jack Johnson, Donnie Hathaway, …

Midon is a virtuoso guitarist and singer, and he does the best vocal impersonation of a trumpet ever. If I hadn't seen him do it, I'd have sworn it was a horn player.

You can listen to "Pick Somebody Up" and other songs — terrific songs — from the new album on his website. Check out "All The Answers" or "All Because Of You." Heck, listen to them all. I've ordered both A World Within A World and his previous CD, State of Mind. 

I was hoping to find the Tonight Show performance on the Web, but no luck. The studio stuff sounds great, but that live performance was just riveting. His list of upcoming tour dates doesn't include Denver (much of the tour is in Europe), but I'm hoping he gets out here some time. Anyway, here's Midon's network TV debut on Letterman earlier this year, a terrific performance (complete with some "trumpet") of the title song from State of Mind:

 

 

And here's a pretty good live version of "Pick Somebody Up":

If those don't pick you up and put a big smile on your face, check your pulse. 

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Happy birthday, Sir Paul!

Posted by Richard on June 18, 2007

"When I'm 64" is going to have to be retired from the playlist. Or may a lyric rewrite is in order: "When I was 64"? James Paul McCartney was born in Liverpool, England, 65 years ago today. He looks and sounds pretty good for an old geezer, and with the new album high on the charts, is apparently nowhere near retirement.

McCartney still has lots of great melodies in him. "Memory Almost Full" is getting rave reviews, and what I've heard of it sounds terrific. Talk about great melodies — here's the single "Ever Present Past" for your listening pleasure:

And here's the obligatory "Birthday" for Sir Paul's birthday:

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The indomitable human spirit, part 3

Posted by Richard on March 11, 2007

There are people in this world whose courage and character and strength are so remarkable and profound that it moves me to tears. Some of them are young Afghan girls who are glad to be free of the Taliban and just want to make music:

Nargiz started the Burka Band when she met a German music producer in Kabul in late 2002. The producer was teaching Afghans to play modern music, and Nargiz learned to play the drums. One day she wondered why all the burkas in Kabul were blue, and together with two friends she wrote the song "Burka Blue" which is about burkas and the way you feel when you wear them. The song was recorded in Kabul with help from the German producers. The band would rehearse behind locked doors, so nobody would find out that the women were playing music. The burka also helped hide who the band members really were.

 …

The Burka Band has never performed in Afghanistan and at the moment the band is not active. During the Taliban regime music was totally forbidden, and women were not allowed to work. To sing in public could carry a death sentence. Today the country is still very conservative, and there is no market in Afghanistan for the Burka Band's music. The band members have to wait for a European or American record label to help them if they are to make a whole album one day.

These young girls epitomize the indomitable human spirit and its unquenchable thirst for freedom and self-expression. Here's their video:

 

 

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Decline of hip-hop?

Posted by Richard on March 2, 2007

As regular readers know, I’m not religious. But this is the kind of story that makes even me whisper, "Please, God, let it be true":

Maybe it was the umpteenth coke-dealing anthem or soft-porn music video. Perhaps it was the preening antics that some call reminiscent of Stepin Fetchit.

The turning point is hard to pinpoint. But after 30 years of growing popularity, rap music is now struggling with an alarming sales decline and growing criticism from within about the culture’s negative effect on society.

Rap insider Chuck Creekmur, who runs the leading Web site Allhiphop.com, says he got a message from a friend recently "asking me to hook her up with some Red Hot Chili Peppers because she said she’s through with rap. A lot of people are sick of rap … the negativity is just over the top now."

The rapper Nas, considered one of the greats, challenged the condition of the art form when he titled his latest album "Hip-Hop is Dead." It’s at least ailing, according to recent statistics: Though music sales are down overall, rap sales slid a whopping 21 percent from 2005 to 2006, and for the first time in 12 years no rap album was among the top 10 sellers of the year. A recent study by the Black Youth Project showed a majority of youth think rap has too many violent images. In a poll of black Americans by The Associated Press and AOL-Black Voices last year, 50 percent of respondents said hip-hop was a negative force in American society.

Read the whole thing — it’s an interesting and multifaceted story.

For me, it’s not just the misogyny, glorification of violence, thuggishness, and nihilism that turn me off to hip-hop. Over the last 35 or 40 years, I’ve liked plenty of music that had a message I fundamentally disagreed with. But I’ve liked the music. Heck, there are rock and roll songs that I really like even though I have no idea what they’re about. They just sound nice.

I heard someone on the radio once discussing music, and he said music consisted of three elements: melody (which comes from the head), harmony (which comes from the heart), and rhythm (which comes from the groin).

I don’t know if that’s true or not, but if it is, it explains my dislike of hip-hop. Hip-hop discards the first two elements completely and presents only a vile message packaged in rhythm alone. To me, that’s not just anti-intellectual, but anti-human. It’s the glorification and celebration of the animalistic.

Melody matters a lot to me. Melody is what makes music music. The absence of melody — the rejection of melody — turns me off. Heck, it annoys me. Hell, it angers me. If you call yourself a "musician," but you can’t — or won’t — write a melody, I hope you, your do-rag, and your hate-filled doggerel go back to working at the Grease Monkey where you belong.

And did I mention that I have no use for "singers" who can merely chant?
 

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Brown and Ford

Posted by Richard on December 29, 2006

Two very different men of significance died this week: James Brown and Gerald Ford. I’m sorry to see them both go. I must confess, though, that my most vivid memories regarding both are actually of their impersonators. Beyond WIN buttons, I don’t recall much of anything Ford did or said, but I can still see Chevy Chase playing Ford as a bumbling, stumbling simpleton on SNL. Pretty unfair (of both Chase and me) — Ford was third in his class at Yale Law School.

Likewise, although I can hear snatches of Brown’s music in my mind, the image that I remember is a Brown impersonator (I can’t recall who, but I don’t think it was Eddie Murphy) caricaturing Brown’s shtick of starting to leave the stage seemingly exhausted, then suddenly regaining his strength, shrugging off the coat draped over him by an assistant, and storming back to the microphone.

Like most of us, both men had their pluses and minuses. Interestingly, they were opposites in that regard. By all accounts, Gerald Ford was a very nice man, but he wasn’t a very good president. James Brown, on the other hand, was a terrific performer, but apparently wasn’t a very nice man. Since we’re supposed to speak well of the dead, I’ll recast their weaknesses in a more positive light. I’m pretty sure James Brown didn’t mistreat women as much as Bobby Brown. And I’m certain the country would have been better off if Gerald Ford had won in 1976.
 

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Lou Rawls

Posted by Richard on December 1, 2006

Last January, I noted the passing of Lou Rawls with sadness, and suggested:

You youngsters who aren’t familiar with Rawls really ought to check out some of his music. Try Stormy Monday, which is an astonishingly polished, professional, and enduring first album, recorded in 1962 when he was 21. Then check out the more pop 70s recordings, the 80s Blue Note stuff, the love songs…

Listen to songs like St. James Infirmary, Good Intentions, Unforgettable  — compare them to the crap put out by Kanye West, and tell me which is real music that moves the soul.

Well, today is Lou Rawls’ birthday, and Scott at Power Line remembered. He’s posted a couple of YouTube videos so you can hear some "real music that moves the soul." The first is a very young Rawls singing "Love Is a Hurtin’ Thing." The second is a more mature Rawls performing "You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine," and it’s the best investment of four minutes you can make. I guarantee you’ll feel better for the rest of the day after listening to that song.
 

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Matisyahu

Posted by Richard on February 3, 2006

Apparently, Matisyahu has been around for a while (signed a record deal last spring), and has gotten a fair amount of online buzz and media attention — including appearances on Jimmy Kimmel, David Letterman, and Craig Ferguson (where I saw him the other night).

But he’s new to me. Maybe you, too. And he’s something you don’t see every day: a Hasidic reggae singer. Yes, really:

Hasidic Reggae? Hasidic Reggae. In the crowded New York reggae scene, Matisyahu literally stands out like no other. Beyond his versatile voice which ranges from sweet and fluid, to rough and rugged, he’s a very unexpected face; standing over six feet tall, wearing the traditional garb of a Hasidic male. With his long beard and black hat, this 24-yr-old lyricist, MC, and beatboxer is a singular performer, whose power, poetry, and skills combine the sounds of Bob Marley and Shlomo Carlebach, yet remaining wholly original.

Check out this clip at IFILM of his Jimmy Kimmel appearance and see what you think. I kinda like it. Kurticus Maximus liked it, too, and he’s way smart.

Matisyahu’s record company is called JDub Records, which also has an interesting band called Balkan Beat Box: 

Blending electronic music with hard-edged folk music from the Balkans, North Africa, and the Middle East, the exciting and internationally acclaimed collective Balkan Beat Box is out to prove that all the world is indeed a stage — and that we are all gypsies.

Equally influenced by Boban Markovic, Rachid Taha, and Fanfare Ciocarlia as well as Manu Chao and Charlie Parker, Balkan Beat Box presents a wild mixture of styles and sounds. 

Give them a listen, too. It’s fun stuff!

Oh, yeah — and if you go to the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, June 16-18 in Manchester, Tennessee, you can see both Matisyahu and Balkan Beat Box! Along with a fellow named Tom Petty and a few others.

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Lou Rawls, R.I.P.

Posted by Richard on January 9, 2006

I’m a bit late, but I don’t want to let the death of Lou Rawls go unnoted. His passing was no surprise, since he’d been suffering from cancer for some time. But it saddens me. Rawls was one of a kind — a marvelous, unique, smooth, smoky baritone who made any song he sang his own. Rawls’ career spanned fifty-some years and a wide range of musical styles — gospel, jazz, R&B, blues, pop, soul, and some people say his spoken-word song intros, monologues, and verses were the precursors to rap.

Rawls went to high school with the legendary Sam Cooke, and began his musical career harmonizing with him. I didn’t know until his death that Rawls had been a paratrooper. He enlisted in 1955 and served three years in the 82nd Airborne Division. That explains one of his longstanding missions in life: for 25 years, Rawls put on concerts for U.S. military personnel around the world and for the United Negro College Fund. Both were underwritten by Anheuser-Bush, with which he had a long relationship. To people significantly younger than me (which is most people), Rawls is probably most recognizable as a spokesman for Budweiser and the voice of Garfield the cat.

You youngsters who aren’t familiar with Rawls really ought to check out some of his music. Try Stormy Monday, which is an astonishingly polished, professional, and enduring first album, recorded in 1962 when he was 21. Then check out the more pop 70s recordings, the 80s Blue Note stuff, the love songs…

Listen to songs like St. James Infirmary, Good Intentions, Unforgettable  — compare them to the crap put out by Kanye West, and tell me which is real music that moves the soul.

Rest in peace, Lou.

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P-Funk lives!

Posted by Richard on November 17, 2005

Wow! I just saw George Clinton and Parliament/Funkadelic on the Tonight Show! I didn't even know he/they/it were still doing their "thang." I didn't know he'd regained the rights to use the names Parliament and Funkadelic (I vaguely remember he lost both, leading him to call his group "The P-Funk Experience" for a time).

I don't think I've seen Clinton since the late 80s or early 90s. He looked pretty good — lots of gray, but still freaky and having fun. Did you know Parliament/Funkadelic were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year? Clinton himself was inducted back in 1997.

If you've never seen George Clinton's Mothership Connection show, you've really missed something. Clinton has, since the late 60s, blended R&B, rock 'n roll, psychedelia, and his own unique perspective and sense of humor.

Parliament and Funkadelic, for many years, were separate but complementary and overlapping groups. Parliament was the r&b group with the hit records, while Funkadelic was the more psychedelic and experimental outlet for Clinton's imagination. Both owed a lot to Sly and the Family Stone, which I consider one of the most important — and enjoyable — bands in the history of rock and roll.

And then there were the side projects such as Brides of Funkenstein (pretty sucky) and Bootsy's Rubber Band (pretty awesome, but that's to be expected from Bootsy Collins).

If you're at all interested in R&B and/or psychedelia, and you're not familiar with Clinton, it's time to correct that. Here are a couple of links that can steer you toward the P-Funk experience: One Nation P-Funk and New Funk Times.

Remember, "Soul is a joint rolled in toilet paper." Take a chance on a 70s album or two, like Parliament's Mothership Connection and Funkadelic's One Nation Under a Groove. I bet you'll like them.

UPDATE: As a sorta follow-up, Big & Rich appeared on Conan O'Brien. I'm impressed. Never heard of them, and they're country, but they're somehow appropriate following George Clinton. I'd describe them (based on one song, mind you) as country/rock/psychedelia. I liked it, and I'm going to check out some of their music. As they say, "Somebody's got to be unafraid to lead the freak parade."

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Fats Domino rescued

Posted by Richard on September 2, 2005

Here’s a piece of good news out of New Orleans:

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Fats Domino, who went missing in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, was rescued by boat from floodwaters near his New Orleans home and is “stressed out” but safe, his agent said on Friday.

Domino, 77, beloved for his boogie-woogie piano style and such hits as “Ain’t That a Shame” and “Blueberry Hill,” ended up as one of thousands of New Orleans residents stranded by flooding after he rebuffed pleas from friends to evacuate as the storm bore down on the city, agent Al Embry told Reuters.

The rotund musician, his wife, Rosemary, and at least one daughter were picked up by rescue boat on Tuesday following frantic efforts by Embry to alert authorities that Domino and his family were believed trapped in their home, Embry said.

“We heard he was on the balcony with his family and waving to people,” Embry said.

Fats Domino was one of the early rock and R&B greats. If you’re not familiar with such wonderful songs as “Ain’t That a Shame,” “Blue Monday,” and “Walking to New Orleans,” pick up a Fats Domino album or two (there’s a long, long list to choose from). You’ll enjoy the heck out of them, and I’m guessing Fats and his wife could use a little boost in the royalty checks about now.

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