Musical Ramblings

He's in love with Steffi Graff

This will bring tears to the eyes of those who were there in the early 90s. Tears of laughter, of course. The final twist of that song is quite quite daring. House is tame compared to this!

RIP Esbjörn Svensson

Last weekend, Esbjörn Svensson, pianist of the fabled Swedish trio E.S.T. died tragically ni a scuba diving accident. I never got to see him live, but I loved the music he produced with E.S.T.

Rest in Peace, Esbjörn.

Lost Fingers: 80s pop through the gipsy lens...

A few weeks ago, Cédric from Québec pointed me to a Youtube video of The Lost Fingers. These guys are Gipsy Jazz musicians who are making their mark by reinterpreting not the classic Django repertoire (or not only that repertoire) but mostly covers of 80s pop songs. Yep, that's right. Their first CD Lost in the 80s features songs that were originally made famous by Samantha Fox, Michael Jackson, Bon Jovi, AC/DC or Technotronic. They are rearranged in Gipsy Swing style with a jazzier, gruff style of singing.

And it works.

The opener, Pump up the Jam sets the tone and is - to me - the best track on the record. Injecting such a groovy Swing to a song that was originally driven by a mechanical beat is no mean feat. It's fun and good at the same time, not to mention musical. Other highlights of the record include Billie Jean, where the vocals are an excellent cover of Michael Jackson's vocal mannerisms (only a couple of octaves lower!)  and Tainted Love which is turned into a jumpy joyous thing with corny backing vocals that make me smile everytime.

Overall, this is neither serious music, nor serious jazz. If you're a collector of Django's works and you get your pleasure out of finding lost gems on 78s, maybe this irreverant hommage to the genre he spearheaded is not for you. If you like your jazz to be deeply thought out and experimental, again, probably not your bag. But if you enjoy jazz covers both because they're musically interesting and because they are fun, and if you enjoy the occasional Gipsy Jazz, then you probably will love this.

Well, the easiest way to check is for you to try out the video here. This is a medley of Touch Me > You Give Love a Bad Name > Pump up the Jam. It starts at 1:20.

Fela is the best!

I bought this 2-CD compilation of Fela Kuti's more or less on a whim. I'd heard a little bit about Fela Kuti's music, I'd seen a video of his son Femi on one of the Bonnaroo DVDs, but the tipping point was reading the Music as a Force article on Fela over at the Soul Shack.

Boy, am I happy I did! Fela's music is something special and then some... Actually, the groove of the first track on this "best of" had a catchy yet familiar groove but it was only when the singing started that I realised that I knew Lady from Hugh Masakela's live Hope.

Infectious groove, luscious horns, funky guitar work, jazz meets afro-pop, I'm sure all of these things have been said about Fela Kuti's music, and it's all true, but none of it really helps you grasp it until you hear it. Rarely have I listened with such pleasure to transe music. Of course I have records by the Drummers of Burundi, and I love jam rock, so you could say I was predisposed to loving this stuff. Sure, you have to enjoy getting into a groove over 10+ minutes, but these grooves are irresistible.

This best of entitled just Fela Kuti has only 13 songs but over two hours of deep groovy music. Besides Lady, I particularly love Zombie, which has something more menacing about it. Roforofo Fight, with its primal beet and deep horn riffs is also a killer. But all this is not saying much. I got this compilation for less than 10 EUR and it's the best money I invested in recent months! If you like world music, if you like jazz or funk, if you like jam bands, you should be right at home with this!