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| JB Lenoir
I never will go back
to Alabama, that is not the place for me
You know they killed
my sister and my brother,
and the whole world
let them peoples go down there free
I never will love
Alabama, Alabama seem to never have loved poor me
Oh God I wish you would
rise up one day,
lead my peoples to the
land of pea'
My brother was taken
up for my mother, and a police officer shot him down
I can't help but to
sit down and cry sometime,
think about how my
poor brother lost his life
Alabama, Alabama, why
you want to be so mean
You got my people
behind a barbwire fence,
now you tryin' to take
my freedom away from me
-JB Lenoir
The blues is about many things. Son House believed it was all about the
relationship between a man and his woman. Blues have been sung about every
contraption and every situation imaginable. The strain of the blues that I’ve
always found the most powerful is the one that speaks of the singer’s
experience. Whether that be poverty,
love, injustice, politics or a favorite drink.
I spent a month, many years ago now, locked within a compound on the
border of Afghanistan. A small clutch of
cassette tapes kept me company through the long days and evenings. One of them
was a C-90 with Memphis Slim on Side ‘A’ and Champion Jack Dupree on Side
‘B’. Both were good but Side ‘B’ was
full of stories from Jack’s life. Ugly mothers-in-law, noisy neighbors, racist
white people, the sun going down and his dream of being honored by JFK. He delivered each with humor and pathos. By
the time I left that compound I felt like I knew who Jack Dupree was. All I
really knew about Memphis Slim was that he played raunchy piano. And not only
did I ‘know’ Jack’s life, I felt as if his blues had given me a glimpse into the
everyday experience of black American man before the civil rights movement.
The blues of JB Lenoir, one of which opens this post, are similarly
powerful. Considered by many to be one
of the all time great bluesmen, the “bluesman’s bluesman”, he was born in the
deep south but moved to Chicago, the terminus of the great northern migration,
as a young man. Beginning in the mid
50’s JB wrote songs that stood apart for their frankness and clarity of
vision. He didn’t pull any punches,
though his record companies sometimes did, renaming Eisenhower Blues, to Tax
Paying Blues, in an effort to not piss off the President.
He sang with a high, slightly fragile voice but of difficult subjects. The
way he hated the south. The war, being poor. Like a prophet from the Old
Testament he called upon God to wield his terrible swift sword. He is best remembered, though, for several
fast paced songs that are part of the great American bar band songbook now: Mama Talk to Your Daughter, Mojo Blues and
Voodoo Blues.
In 1967, he had an accident and died some weeks later, just a couple
years short of 40.
Given my current location, I share this brilliant, brave music,
compiled in an album called Vietnam Blues
for your Sunday listening pleasure.
Track Listing:
01 Alabama
02 Mojo Boogie
03 God's Word
04 The Whale Has Swallowed Me
05 Move This Rope
06 I Feel So Good
07 Alabama March
08 Talk to Your Daughter
09 Mississippi Road
10 Good Advice
11 Vietnam
12 I Want to Go
13 Down in Mississippi
14 Slow Down
15 If I Get Lucky
16 Shot on James Meredith
17 Round and Round
18 Voodoo Music
19 Born Dead
20 Leavin' Here
21 Vietnam Blues
22 How Much More
23 Tax Payin' Blues
24 Feelin' Good
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Sunday, July 29, 2012
No More Alabama: JB Lenoir
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Away again.
See you eventually.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
I Ain't Got Long: The Real Bahamas
What is REAL music?
For my money it is music that comes straight from the inner part of the
human soul where there is no self-consciousness, only joy. It comes through the heart and tumbles out of
the mouth and doesn’t even need instruments.
You hear it in religious chants, work songs, tribal celebrations and
even when the drunks stumble home early in the morning. In India I heard it in
the voice of the blind beggars who sang for alms.
It has nothing to do with polish or production. Only soul
and closed eyes are required. The album we highlight tonight is about as close
as you can get to the bone without killing the singer. It is pure music,
unadulterated, simple and very complex and absolutely non-negotiable. Though it
is sung by ‘uneducated’ probably, barely literate people who are unafraid to
laugh, cough, growl and shout as they sing the music they make sounds as if it
came out of the very first volcano on earth. It is hot, cutting and
unrelenting. So uplifting and moving too.
It is a collection of gospel ditties, sea shanties and
parables from the Bahamas sung by itinerant preachers, pick up guitarists and
very powerful speakers of truth. Many of
the songs are sung by various members of the Pinder family about which I was able to find this lovely portrait.
The Pinder Family
lived in the Bahamas and were descended if not in blood then certainly in
spirit from a long line of Island musicians.
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| Joseph Spence |
Joseph Spence played the
guitar and sang, if you can call it that. It's hard to say exactly what he did.
He grunted.
He snorted.
He made low guttural noises, and then would suddenly
break into a demented scat.
He would be singing along and his English would descend
into complete nonsensical gibberish.
Sometimes he almost sounded like Popeye. But whatever it
was he was doing*, you could tell he meant business.
They say he looked like he was going into a trance when
he played. The man was almost certainly filled with the Spirit.
And his guitar playing was phenomenal.
Sometimes even to this day while listening to him I
wonder if my ears might be playing tricks on me.
Paired along with his voice, his guitar playing could
weave incredibly complex rhythms and produce some of the most intriguing music
I've ever heard to this day. His lackadaisical and carefree (almost irreverent)
style is guaranteed to lighten any mood, and to hear his laugh always puts a smile
on my face. Most people unfortunately would dismiss this sort of music offhand,
if not because it seemed strange and exotic (and perhaps even frightening!),
then because much of it was gospel. But any musician, or anybody with an ear
for good music for that matter should immediately recognize its value.
*Actually, the Bahamians refer to this style of singing
as "rhyming", and it could almost be considered a precursor to modern
rap.
The Pinder
family often accompanied Spence, and
together they were nothing short of a veritable music machine. Edith sang in a powerfully deep and
throaty tenor that reminds me of a Jamaican reggae singer. Her husband Raymond provided a deep and rich bass,
while their daughter Geneva warbled
along in a flighty treble. You just have to hear them to understand, but I'm
telling you it's unbelievable stuff. They sang with an incredible intensity
that at times can be almost overwhelming to listen to. The music is simple, but
the complexities are astounding. It's truly a wonder to behold. If you've ever
heard The Incredible String Band or The Grateful Dead performing their
versions of "I Bid You Goodnight" then you've heard their tribute to
the Pinder Family. These groups
heard the song on an album called The Real Bahamas, a 1965 Nonesuch Records
release which has since been re-released. Other musicians who claim Joseph
Spence as an influence include Ry Cooder
and Taj Mahal, both of whom had
the pleasurey to meet and play with him before his death in 1984. (http://spence.bryandeno.net/)
This is where the blues came from. Where almost every form
of music in America came from. This could be 1760 rather than 1960. Phenomenal!
Track
Listing.
01 We'll Understand It Better By And By
02 Sheep Know When Thy Shepherd Calling
03 I Told You People Judgement Coming
04 Don't Take Everybody To Be Your Friend
05 Sailboat Malarkey
06 Up In The Heaven Shouting
07 Won't That Be A Happy Time
08 Out On The Rolling Sea
09 I Am So Glad
10 Come For Your Dinner
11 God Locked The Lion's Jaw
12 Great Dream From Heaven
13 My Lord Help Me To Pray
14 Numberless As The Sands On The Seashore
15 I Ain't Got Long
16 I Bid You Goodnight
17 Mary And Joseph
18 Peter, You Need The Lord
19 Jesus Promised Me A Home Over There
20 Troublesome Water
21 Kneeling Down Inside The Gate
22 Jesus Your Name So Sweet
23 Take Me Over The Tide
24 When The Leaves Turn Red
25 That Glad Reunion Day
26 The Great Coronation
27 The Captain Go Ashore
28 Ain't No Grave Gonna Hold God's Body Down
Monday, July 23, 2012
Pure Kenyan Gold: Extra Golden
A while back
I posted Thank You Very Quickly by
the American-Kenyan group, Extra Golden. A few days ago I found their first album OK-Oyot System going for a song in yet
another struggling retail outlet. I
grabbed it and have been listening to it all weekend. This is a record that
places the electric guitar front and center, whether it be the languid plucking
of shantytown Luo rhythms or elongated swathes of American stoner rock. Sound weird?
Not at all. These guys work up an entirely pleasurable aural feast that
ploughs a deep, but always gentle, groove.
That it was recorded in one afternoon session is a wonder to behold.
Some of the
other sounds that came to mind as I listened: 3 Mustaphas 3, Black Keys, Cornershop!
Recorded in Kenya under a canopy of personal hardship,
sacrifice, and loss, Ok-Oyot System has the type of compelling backstory
that seems as though it should automatically translate into a powerful
listening experience. The album is a collaboration between Otieno Jagwasi and Onyango
Wuod Omari-- both members of the Kenyan group Orchestra Extra Solar Africa-- and Ian Eagleson and Alex Minoff
of the D.C.-based group Golden. It's
a collaboration that began when Eagleson
went to Kenya for a year to conduct research for his doctoral thesis on benga--
a jazzy, guitar-centric strain of dance music popular in Kenya since the 1960s.
As guitarist and vocalist for Extra Solar Africa, Otieno provided much assistance for Eagleson's research; ultimately, Extra
Golden were assembled in April 2004 to create and record their unique benga/rock hybrid. Along the way the musicians
were forced to overcome numerous obstacles, including a costly run-in with the
corrupt Kenyan police force and the effects of Otieno's severe physical ailments. Suffering from kidney and liver
diseases that were complicated by HIV, Otieno's
health continued to deteriorate after this recording session. He passed away in
May 2005.
The title Ok-Oyot is derived
from a Luo phrase that means, "it's not easy." This expression is used
regularly as an exclamation in benga
songs, and needless to say it seems a particularly apt descriptor for Extra Golden's all-too-brief
collaborative experience. Yet considering the misfortune that seems to have
plagued the album's creation-- and the political nature of some of its
lyrics--the music on Ok-Oyot
System is not particularly
freighted with angry defiance, outward gloom, or self-conscious poignancy.
Instead it's an album that sounds very much like what it is: Four talented,
enthusiastic musicians playing together as a group for the first time,
patiently working through ideas to determine a common musical vocabulary.
The bulk of the album was recorded in a single
afternoon, a spontaneous approach that perfectly complements the exuberance of
tracks like the opening "Ilando
Gima Onge". In the hands of Extra Golden, benga seems an especially malleable genre, one
that coarsely blends Indestructible
Beat of Soweto propulsion with fluid, almost Cuban-accented rhythms and
miles of complex, interlocking guitar figures. On the opener, Otieno adds some appealing, laid-back
vocals, but the 11-minute song is dominated by the ambitious dialogue between
his guitar and those of Eagleson and
Minoff. Both the title track and the
deceptively sunny anti-Bin Laden cut
"Osama Rach" were written
in the studio, held together primarily through Omari's agile, inventive drumming and the group's obvious sense of
camaraderie.
Track Listing:
01
Ilando Gima Onge
02 It's Not Easy
03 Ok-Oyot System
04 Osama Rach
05 Tussin and Fightin'
06 Nyajondere
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