From Nina Simone to Michelle, Paul’s belle

Michelle is a song that came about after Paul McCartney attended a party in Paris. Seems he made a mock of a French-sounding growl and then John Lennon asked him to purify and rework it into a song for Rubber Soul. However, in his collaboration with various people for the final version, McCartney stuck to the ‘frenchness’ of the tune. Interestingly enough, when Lennon got it he based it on Nina Simone’s recording of I Put a Spell on You, which shares resemblance to the “sont des mots qui vont tres bien ensembe”. It seems he had been influenced by the latter which he was listening to the previous night. Two mythical songs.

I Put a Spell on You a on Last.fm, and Michelle

Badu for truth and light: “Way to go!”, said Dad

Erica Abi Wright, also known as Erikah Badu, was born in Dallas in February 1971. She’s an R&B and hip-hop singer and writer. She is often compared to Billie Holiday for her “musical sensibilities”, Wikipedia dixit.

I like her. I would normally think this is too commercial, but there is something in her neo soul stream, this so-called alternative or underground hip-hop, that resounds. Her father had left the home when she was growing up, but when she chose the artistic name Badu, he wrote her: “Badu in Arabic means truth and light, good choice kid”.

Not sure if this video reminds me of Carmen Miranda, Billie Holiday or Chaka Kahn meets Grace Jones. I like Erykah Badu anyway, I discovered it last week.

         

Images of the unforgettable Carmen Miranda; Grace Jones in the cover of Nighclubbing album courtesy of this Canadian site; Chaka Khan way back when. In the video the song Bag Lady. Cool colours and instrumentation.

Car Music Project, a true ‘or-car-stra’

Bill Milbrodt (in the image with an air guitar) is known as an eccentric avant-garde music innovator capable of making music from car parts. Recently he has lead a project for Ford Motors where he has built 31 instruments -from Focus car parts- in a record time of four weeks. A wonderful campaign idea for an abominable (aren’t they all?) car manufacturer. It’s not the first time Milbrodt does it, but Ford took a very great marketing stride in commissioning this project to him.

    

The fender bass in the images, made from a Ford Focus wing (United Kingdom) or fender (United States). It looks elegant, and it sounds good!

Check out some of his videos at the project’s Myspace page

Images courtesy of the Car Music Project and it’s mentors

Pouring Champagne Stars

Tom Waits was a big part of my musical adolescence. He was there during my various boarding school experiences, he was there when I graduated from NYU’s College of Arts & Science, he was there when I started the Non-Profit section of a Spanish local paper… I have always been a great fan of Jim Jarmusch and of course, he was there with him all the way.

Some of my favourite songs are Tom Traubert’s Blues from the 1976 album Small Change (also in the 1987 collection The Asylum Years); the somewhat novel You Can Never Hold Back Spring from the 2006 tr-anthology Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards; and Please Call Me Baby from The Heart of Saturday Night album (1974).

I want to share the lyrics of a great Tom Waits song I just recovered form the trunk of remembrance, Drunk on The Moon, from The Heart of Saturday Night. Hope you may enjoy this 1976 soundstage video and the lyrics as much as I.

Tight-slacked clad girls on the graveyard shift
‘Neath the cement stroll
Catch the midnight drift
Cigar chewing charlie
In that newspaper nest
grifting hot horse tips
On who’s running the best

And I’m blinded by the neon
Don’t try and change my tune
‘Cause I thought I heard a saxophone
I’m drunk on the moon

And the moon’s a silver slipper
It’s pouring champagne stars
Broadway’s like a serpent
Pulling shiny top-down cars
Laramer is teeming
With that undulating beat
And some Bonneville is screaming
It’s way wilder down the street

Hearts flutter and race
The moon’s on the wane
Tarts mutter their dream hopes
The night will ordain
Come schemers and dancers
Cherry delight
As a Cleveland-bound Greyhound
And it cuts through the night

And I’ve hawked all my yesterdays
Don’t try and change my tune
‘Cause I thought I heard a saxophone
I’m drunk on the moon

In the image Tom Waits as Zack (with John Lurie) in Jim Jarmusch’s 1986 Down by Law

Monkey: Journey to the West

Bravo! Bravo! Bravo! A million times bravo! These guys are setting the classical stages free! 

I saw this animated, acrobatic, 21st Century circus opera last night in the very Parisian Theatre de Chatelet. Insane. I mean, insane. How cool.

I bet you’ve never been in an opera that starts with animation by the guy who came up with Gorillaz; that is based on a Chinese epic written in 1592; and where you are assimilated by an army of 40 Chinese acrobats, singers and dancers that keep you on the edge of the most amazing choreographic, costume and musical thrill you’ve had in ages.

Some master minds behind this are Chen Shi Zheng (conception and mise en scene), Damon Albarn (composition) (the guy from Blur) and Jamie Hewlett (co-creator of Gorillaz). All 3 in the picture below

In case you never heard of the original text, Xi You Ji (Journey to the West), by Wu Cheng, is the tale of a Chinese monk, based in a mythological world, which recites in a fantastical and comic manner his travels through India in the 7th C. He is carrying the sacred Buddhist texts and the trip will take him 17 years.

In the narration the traveller -Tripitaka- is accompanied by Monkey King and another 3 anthropomorphic buddies (a white horse, a pig and a sable).

Boris Godunov: opera, 4 acts, prologue

This Opera by Modest Mussorgsky (in picture) is one of his few finished and a true masterpiece. It’s based on Alexander Pushkin’s drama of the same title and Nikolai Karamazin’s History of the Russian Empire.

The opera, which I discovered in a record store in Moscow, takes place in 1598-1605 between Russia and Poland.

It’s a tragic story about the regent of young tsar Fyodor, Boris Godunov. He arranges the murder of the half brother and successor to Fydor, Dimitrii, in order to seize power. Upon Boris’ death he declines to take it, but the crowds acclaim him and he takes the throne, albeit riddled with guilt.

In the monastery of Chudov, old monk Pimen is writing a chronicle of Russia and tells his novice, Gregorii, Boris Godunov’s story. Gregorii, to avenge Dimitrii, pretends to be the murdered and escapes to Lithuania with vagabond friars Varlaam and Misail.

Back in the Kremlin Boris is told the story of the pretender and, although he is reassured of Dmitrii’s assassination, falls into hallucinations over the story of Gregorii.

In Poland, Marina, urges Grigorii, her lover, to become the tsar. In the Kromy forest people rally him to Moscow. In the meantime, in Moscow, the boyars hold an emergency meeting: Pimen has been narrating the ongoing madness of Boris, confirmed upon his entrance. Finally it seems he is miraculously cured form hallucinations before the tomb of Dimitrii, where he himself encounters his own death bidding his farewell to his son and saying his prayers for Russia.

I recommend this monumental opera, always in the original Mussorgsky version and libretto.

Billy Holiday, Strange Fruit

Billie Holiday’s youth and adult life where a dramatic account of black womanhood. Her very hard and abused childhood gave way to a drug and alcohol ridden adult life, always sorrounded by abusive men until her early death at 44.

Billie Holiday was recording for Columbia Records in the mid-thirties the first time she heard the lyrics of Strange Fruit, written by Jewish school teacher from the Bronx Abel Meeropol.

Strange Fruit, often performed by her from there on, is a song about the lynchings of African Americans that were taking place all over the Southern US at the time when it was written.

This song is one of the most moving and turbulent of all her repertoire. It manages to put music to the bloody social problem of lynchings and racism in early XXth Century America.

Take some time to see a video with rare footage of Holiday performing this anti-racist song. It should give you something to ponder over: Humanity’s uncanny disposition towards hatred.

Sly Stone

Yesterday Sly and The Family Stone where at the Olympia Hall in Paris. Sly was on for about 4 songs but his “family” did a pretty funky act. I have fond memories of my NYU days listening to Sly (we were quite vintage in my dorm, yes). Sly was instrumental in the development of soul, funk and psychodelia in the 60-70s. He taught San Francisco and the world how to funk & soul.

Last night was cool, short and historical. I am not sure we will see him live again, but we cannot forget songs like Everyday people, Family Affair, and my all time favourite If You Want Me To Stay.

If you do not know Sly and want a bit of history check him out on the PhattaDatta page