etnobofin

An unexpected summertime pleasure has been Alexander Peskanov performing Scott Joplin piano rags. The CD was given to me for Christmas by a thoughtful family member. It’s one of those albums that I’d never think to buy myself, and yet is full of interest and new discoveries.

Discovery, principally, of the work of Joplin beyond the classic “Maple Leaf Rag“/”The Entertainer“/”The Easy Winners“, (tunes from which almost all life has been drained through endless hours spent with that middle-aged lady piano teacher with the horn-rimmed spectacles who inhabits so many of our childhoods).

If you haven’t heard Ricky Gervais‘ new podcast yet, I recommend you check it out. Three guys talk about absolutely nothing for half an hour, and there’s a new show every week. I’m not sure I like the way they treat Karl, but it is pretty darn funny.

Italian guitarist and composer Battista Lena has put together a couple of rather astounding records for the French Label Bleu in the past few years. One of them, (Banda Sonora), remains on my wish-list. The other is an orchestral eurojazz space opera that describes the fictional voyage of 3 Russian cosmonauts, with a dual libretto in Italian and French.

Mashup Challenge 2006: Update
Thanks for all the suggestions so far: we are still accepting late contributions. Our team of subservient house-elves will begin their deliberations tonight, and (barring hanging chads and ongoing issues with our dodgy IBM voting machines), we should have a Top 10 posted in the next few days!

By the Way…
Dave Douglas has a blog.

Crowded House vs Pharrell – The Weather Episode

matt mentioned John Zorn in a comment here last night, reminding me of an idea that I had half-baked and abandoned. The idea is still half-baked, but I’m dragging it out of the fridge serving it up anyway. It’s the stoopidest concept ever, with ther possible exception of Sudoku.

The Mashup Challenge 2006
The aim of this game is to come up with a list of the 10 most impossible artist mashups ever, the sort of mashups that would come with a health warning.

You don’t have to nominate specific songs/tracks. Just the artists. Bonus points may be awarded for the most surreal and silly.

Like Mornington Crescent, The Mashup Challenge 2006 is purely an intellectual exercise, and I don’t expect anyone to actually attempt to produce any of these in their bedroom studio. If anyone actually bothers, well, we’ll give them lots of respect. Or block our ears.

To kick it off, here are three that I thought of:

So… post your mashup ideas in the comments section below, and we’ll pull together the best ones for a Top 10!

(matt/Taxi Driver, this is why I don’t get linked by o-dub. Because I do dumb stuff like this.)

Don Byron, clarinetist and composer. His 1996 album Bug Music carried the ambitous subtitle Music Of The Raymond Scott Quintette, John Kirby & His Orchestra, And The Duke Ellington Orchestra. And yet what is most surprising about this piece of painstaking musical archaeology is how modern it sounds.

Graeme Allwright and band
Saturday, 3rd December 2005, University of Auckland School of Music

Graeme Allwright’s concert last night demonstrated how this French star remains a virtual unknown in his country of birth. I imagine a passport check at the door would have revealed as many French citizens in the audience as New Zealanders. And I was very possibly the youngest person at the event!

Folk music is not my regular predeliction. However Allwright’s performance affirmed that this music should be more widely appreciated and heard. Storytelling and collective memory play such strong roles here, and this is the common thread that links the work of Woody Guthrie and Willy Nelson to Charles Trenet, George Brassens and Jacques Brel. Allwright’s choice of material for the evening highlighted these hidden transatlantic links.

Too often today our popular music is characterised by lyrics that are self-centred and cynical. Allwright’s music evokes a kind of simplicity and optimism (or hippy naïvité?) that is so often lacking in songwriters of more recent times. Listen to this, recorded by Allwright in 1978:

Graeme Allwright – Petite Fleur Fanée

Allwright’s kiwi band were great, although at times overpowering the nonchalant delivery of Allwright himself – his vocals could have been higher in the mix for the whole evening, with perhaps some of the mids dropped out. It was refreshing to hear Jonathan Crayford and Lucian Johnson in a frankly non-jazz setting (although Crayford got to play to his strengths, and Allwright got to play at Charles Aznavour in a swinging rendition of “It had to Be You/Il fallait que ça soit toi“.)

Allwright’s music is one of great lightness and beauty, and I hope that I am as sprightly and commanding on stage at the age of 78 as was Monsieur Allwright last night. C’était vraiment très bien.

I thought I’d preview a concert on Saturday night that I’m really looking forward to: partly because it is a rare event involving the intersection of 3 of my particular worlds – New Zealand, Music and France.

Graeme Allwright’s life story is quite remarkable. He was born in Wellington, New Zealand in 1926 (same year as Miles Davis). After gaining a scholarship to a drama school in London, he followed his heart to France in 1948, where he settled with his first wife.

Working daytime in the various odd jobs that are often the fate of long-term anglo-saxons in France, he started exploring the music of 1960s singer-songwriters – notably adaptations into French of Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan. In 1966, at the age of 40, he got a record deal (there’s still hope!), and his first disc was a hit in France. Allwright’s music successfully bridged the worlds of Woodstock and the heated days of the événements in France in 1968. Further hit songs followed, and he became a star throughout the francophone world. For an anglophone from the far side of the world, to gain recognition in the tight circle of chanson française was a significant achievement.

Of course, nobody knows who he is in his native land, and Graeme’s tour to New Zealand in 2005 (aged 78) is effectively the first time he has performed in this country as a recognised artist. He’s assembled a great kiwi band for the tour, including pianist Jonathan Crayford and the very original saxophonist Lucien Johnson.

Graeme Allwright – Suzanne
From Le Jour de clarté: Polygram 536 163-2 [Buy]

Graeme Allwright – La Marseillaise
[zipfile including lyrics and mp3]

The songs here give you a good idea of his style. Suzanne (by Leonard Cohen) is one of his great hits. And this cheeky kiwi has even dared to play with La Marseillaise, re-working the lyrics to aspire to more than blood and guts. Perhaps these represent new valeurs républicaines for the 21st Century…?

Pour tous les enfants de la terre
Chantons amour et liberté.
Contre toutes les haines et les guerres
L’étendard d’espoir est levé
L’étendard de justice et de paix.
Rassemblons nos forces, notre courage
Pour vaincre la misère et la peur.
Que règnent au fond de nos coeurs
L’amitié la joie et le partage.
La flamme qui nous éclaire,
Traverse les frontières
Partons, partons, amis, solidaires
Marchons vers la lumière.

© 2005, Graeme Allwright – Sylvie Dien

Righto, I’m back with some more regular posts. I said earlier on that I was taking some time to focus on some projects. The results of actually focusing on these projects were:

1. One of the projects got moved forward a little bit.
2. I decided that one of the projects wasn’t actually what I wanted to do, and gave it up.
3. I spent a whole lot of unplanned time re-connecting with friends, (and making some new ones), which in fact I realise now, was what I actually needed to do.

I guess the lesson here is that I should stop being so self-important and let things drift a bit more. Then I might actually achieve something.