Musical Ramblings

Best of 00s: Bela Fleck - Throw Down Your Heart (2009)

Throw Down Your Heart is the result of a great story which is told in the amazing documentary of the same title (which I will review separately once I've finished the Best of 00s series). The banjo's roots are in Africa, in instruments such as the akonting. Once on the American soil, slaves from Africa reconstructed their folk instruments, and the gradual evolutions of this particular one led to the instrument we know today as the banjo.

I tend to distinguish between what I call "ethnic" music - which I consider to be more or less unadulturated folk music - and "world" music which is either traditional folk music modernized for western tastes or a blending of traditional folk and western influences to produce something different. Throw Down Your Heart belongs, in a sense to this latest category but is probably as close as feasible to "ethnic" nonetheless.

Fleck's project for this record was a simple concept: he traveled to several countries in east (Tanzania, Uganda,...) and west (Senegal, Mali, Gambia,...) Africa to meet local musicians and record with them. In some places he knew who he wanted to meet and play with, in others he simply went out to meet local bands and record if he liked what he heard (which, according to the documentary, ended up being most of the time!)

What's marvelous here though is that Bela is not trying to shine, he's simply trying to blend in and contribute something to the songs picked from the traditional African songbook. This is evident from the very first track, Tulinesangala, recorded with a group of Ugandian housewives. Bela just undescores the melody and, towards the end, pushes the intensity forward a little with some chording, but there's nothing flashy, it's deeply respectful of the material and the musicians.

Other highlights include his lighthearted collaborations with Ugandan thumb pianist Anania Nogoglia like Kabibi, the amazing polyrhythms of Wairenziante with a group of giant marimba players, the deep primal vibe of Pakugyenda Belabauo with Tanzanian bowed lyre and percussion player Warema Masiage Cha Cha and the tear-inducing duet with Malian singer Oumou Sangare Djorolen. 

Throw down your Heart is perhaps the best album of world music I own. Bela's humble approach to this folkloric material has focused the project sharply on the music. In bringing the banjo to Africa, he brings African music back to us in all it's joys and sorrows. He hands us a little piece of Africa. And for that even more than for his own musical brilliance (still evident here if you know how to listen) he deserves gratitude.

In addition to this highly recommended record, the documentary of Throw Down Your Heart is available on DVD, and Bela has recently self released a follow-up with a lot more music that was recorded on the same trip. Entitled Throw Down Your Heart: Africa Session vol. 2, it's only $10 in lossless FLAC and/or mp3 format with extensive sleevenotes. I'll probably review that too when I've had time to give it a few more spins.

Check out the Rest of the Best

Jason Ricci is really a girl!

This video was posted by Jason Ricci earlier this week. It's a prank Jason and some friends play on Nate Myer's band: Jason dresses as a girl, plays the stereotypical blonde airhead and gets himself invited to play with the band and then... he tears the place down! Hilarious! This kind of fun is what music should always be about !

Hypnotic Brass Ensemble: War

I really need to resume my best of 00s reviews (and I'm planning an associated podcast when time allows) but in the meantime, here's a slice of a brass band I recently discovered, the Chicago based Hypnotic Brass Ensemble. Their self-titled debut album is a really great piece of brass music, check it out !

Review: Sébastien Charlier - Precious Time

Sébastien Charlier is a well-known figure in the French harmonica scene, an uncompromising jazz musician who just happens to have chose the diatonica harmonica as his main axe (he also plays sax and banjo on the side, but not in public.) He released an interesting jazz album a few years back called Diatonic Revelation. He's back now with a project that is much closer to his heart and was entirely self-produced, under the title of Precious Time.

Precious Time is the first of a series of three albums that will cover different aspects of jazz as they impacted Sébastien's own life and musical journey. The first opus is an unabashed homage to 80s jazz-rock, complete with pounding rhythms, heavy guitar, synth galore and distorted harmonica. Jazz-Rock was the first musical genre that hooked Sébastien and pushed him towards jazz as a teenager. This is, to a certain extent, a return to his teenage musical love 25 years later.

For this project, Sébastien had to work hard (in his own words). This may sound strange to anyone who heard his fluid playing on Diatonic Revelation, but as he explained to me the jazz-rock phrasings that he was aiming for required a whole new level of precision. Another area that required exploration was sound effects. Sébastien wanted to make sure that the sound of the harmonica, whether unprocessed or transformed would fit with the music the band would be playing. All in all over two years of dedicated work went into preparation for Precious Time, in between practice, songwriting, demos and recording.

The line-up for this project is made up of true lovers of jazz fusion. Sébastien is backed by his long-time musical wingman Nicolas Espinasse on guitars, Jean-Philippe Lajus on keyboards, Canadian bassist Alain Caron (Uzeb) and Californian drummer Curt Bisquera (Mick Jagger, Elton John.)

But enough about the context, what about the music? Well, I'll be straightforward and say that it's not what I was expecting. In a good way. I was really anticipating some very complex writing with the potential added risk of endless solos that would only speak to people who could analyse the underlying structures. Instead what I got was a very groovy CD thatI can listen to in the car without my wife crying blue murder.

Of course, it's more, much more than that, but I think stating outright that this is not hard to get or to get into is important. The second thing that strikes you if you're a harp player is the wild sounds that Sébastien gets out of his ten-holer. Not just the astounding phrases but also the tones. It's really interesting when you notice that you're not recognising the harp by its sound so much as by it's phrasings.

And yet very few harp players I know of could play what Sébastien plays. But that, again, was a surprise for me (and a bit of a frustration for Sébastien when I told him about it): it's only when you sit down and analyse what he's playing that you go "holy shit"! If you're just listening to the music it sounds smooth and "easy". Which is how it should be, in my opinion. I don't want to listen to a record thinking it's amazing because it's never been done before. I want to think it's amazing because it's really good music, full stop. I should stress as well that the rest of the band all have their moments of glory and some of these are particularly stunning in their own right, especially when it comes to Nicolas' guitar solos. Not one of these is run-of-the-mill or uninteresting, they all stand out. A few of them will make your jaw drop. The only other guitar player in my music collection that routinely gives me the same sense of astonishment is Jimmy Herring, and to me that's a big compliment.

The repertoire on this record is varied too. The first couple of songs are heavy rocking numbers, fast and groovy. The first five seconds of the record (the intro to Precious Time) give you a nice taste of what kind of phrases Sébastien plays on this record: fast, unusual, somewhat distorted but not too much so. It's fluid and in-your-face, and it feels good. Shout is one of those wah-wah pieces with lots of high-hats that define jazz-rock to me. It feels like Weather Report, with its own differences. Shout also has a guest solist just as off-track as Sébastien himself in the person of straight flute virtuoso Benoît Sauvé. Hearing Sébastien and Benoît playing each other off at the end of the song is one of the most astonishing and thrilling moments of Precious Time.

The rest of the record is a mix of slower numbers like Solstice d'Eté and heavy grooves like (Keep Feeling) Fascination. Nicolas' guitar playing on that one is smoking... There are a few 70s covers as well, including the particularly stunning take on Genesis' It. The interplay between guitar and harmonica at the end of It is out of this world, to the point where you can no longer distinguish the two after a while.

Overall, I only have two (small) gripes about Precious Time. The synth sounds are really tacky, and while I know that this is completely in style with 80s fusion, it still makes me cringe. I didn't like it then, still don't like it now. It's only a few occurences in the whole of the record though, so I shouldn't make it bigger than it is. The other thing is that this is quintessentially a studio album, greatly produced but lacking a bit of wildness at times. I hope to experience that live sometime in May when the band reconvenes for the record release party in Paris.

All in all, Precious Time is a great record first, and a great harmonica record second, which is how it should be. Much as I liked Diatonic Revelation, I couldn't help but feel that Sébastien wasn't quite himself on that record, that he was working hard to fit into a genre that didn't truly correspond to his personality. Precious Time is absolutely his thing, and it's evident when you listen to it. If you like harmonica, rock, jazz, fusion or any combination of these, this is an album not to be missed.

Review: Galactic at the Paradise Rock Club, Boston

Last week I was in Boston for work, and when I found out that Galactic was in town for the first date of their Ya-Ka-May tour, I was thrilled. I went over to the Paradise Club with four colleagues, and we had a blast! I'm a musical evangelist and I love it when I contribute to people discovering great bands.

It was my first time at the Paradise Rock Club, and I was surprised at how big the venue was. I stood in front of the stage on the right side during the first set and a bit further back and then upstairs during the second set (I just couldn't get any closer, it was packed with drunk dancers!)

It was my third time seeing Galactic, and the first two gigs were both very different. The first time I saw them was just after the release of From the Corner to the Block. It was at the Nouveau Casino in Paris, a small venue packed full of hip-hop fans attracted by Boots Riley and Chali2Na. They were exposed to hard-hitting funk that night (and I discovered a couple of hip-hop artists that I had only ever heard on that record) and it was a blast. The second time was during the Banlieues Bleues jazz festival last year and they had Shaman Allen with them. It was a very different gig, mostly instrumental, but it was very very good stuff too.

This time, the core band of Stanton, Rich, Robert, Ben and Jeff was supplemented by Corey Henry of the Rebirth Brass Band on trombone and Cyril Neville on vocals and percussion. One thing is for sure: every time you see Galactic, it's a different band doing a different show. There's no risk of it sounding the same from one tour to the next.

I wasn't able to get my hands on Ya-Ka-May (they had vinyls, but the CDs only arrived on the day after this gig, it seems), and it didn't recognize much of the material they played up until the end when we were treated to a rocking Crazyhorse Mongoose. But it didn't matter that I wasn't in familiar territory, quite the contrary. The spicy recipe of Galactic's own music ('The Meters with a hard edge' is how I described it to one of my colleagues) was made even spicyer by Corey Henry's heavy slamming (when he wasn't roaring on trombone) and Cyril Neville's wonderfully lyrical singing.

There aren't that many bands that you can see three times in three years and yet still deliver a fresh and exciting show. Galactic is one of them. I shot a quick video from the pit, a song called Boe Money. I apologise for the atrocious sound, but this close to the stage Stanton's kick drum saturated the microphone. Still, it'll give you a good feel for the atmosphere. Some photos will follow soon.