MUSIC BX: Boondh A drop of Jal
The News Review:
- MUSIC BX: Boondh A drop of Jal
- Flamenco at the Crossroads How the Bay Area scene found its roots
- Alan Jackson – Good Time – Music – New York Times
- Duke Erikson on Pushin’ Too Hard by the Seeds
- What’s Happening in Pernambuco? – Nik Bartsch’s Ronin – Jacob Golden …
- Telling stories on the kora
- Hot Club of San Francisco celebrates unique music of Django Reinhardt
MUSIC BX: Boondh A drop of Jal
Pakistan Dawn – Feb 24, 2008
Chup Chupis another track that wouldn’t sound out of place when you’d be revisiting the Jal discography in a decade or so. There’s a lot that’s not right with this album. Jal are by no means Dream Theatre and as such there is no need for them to indulge in the sort of guitar virtuosity of which they are not capable. The solos themselves are incredibly annoying and do not belong on the album. They are neither chock full of technical prowess nor do they contain the sort of understated melody you may desire on a pop album. Payal though is the most interesting track on the album… At worst however Jal seem to be completely devoid of any significant ideas. They seem to have decided to follow their own rule book slavishly not stopping to see if any of the notions noted seem depraved of applicability. They’ve come across as derivative and bereft of the ability to add something to music in Pakistan or infact to procreate an album full of songs that might just end up being worthwhile guilty pleasures.
Flamenco at the Crossroads How the Bay Area scene found its roots
San Francisco Chronicle – Feb 24, 2008
But Veneno “discovered” Gypsy flamenco in California in 1974 when he was hitchhiking and doing what he calls his “hippie thing” playing guitar like a folkie barring chords with his left thumb wrapped around the neck. In Mill Valley he ran into a Gypsy singer and guitarist from Mor?August?Rios a nephew of Diego del Gastor. Rios turned Veneno on to Diego’s music – in America – and it changed his musical outlook including as Rios recalls the way Veneno held the guitar. Back in Sevilla Veneno began collaborating with Martirio and two Gypsy rockers whose group Pata Negra moved Diego’s music up the pop charts in 1987 with an electrified flamenco version of one of the maestro’s most famous falsetas covered in their hit “Blues de la Frontera. ” Rodriguez had heard some of this material in his childhood and it began to percolate just as he was shifting from electric guitar to flamenco. By the mid-1990s he was playing professionally with Kiko Veneno. It didn’t take him long to return to the source.
Alan Jackson – Good Time – Music – New York Times
New York Times – Feb 24, 2008
He doesn’t deny getting sick of the tried-and-true. “Certain songs had a similar feel or similar guitar intro” he said. “And when you’d kick them off onstage you’d have to think ‘. which song are we playing?’ ” At times he seemed to be succeeding on reputation alone as in 2000 when he managed to nudge a malformed U… There’s no question that Mr. Jackson is a country kingpin respected even by the impatient young singers who complain that the country industry relies too heavily on proven hit makers like him. But outside the world of country music Mr. Jackson is often viewed less respectfully not as an American original but as a Nashville clone. Mainstream country singers like him are routinely written off or ignored by listeners and critics who claim to champion the real thing. No profile of a quirky singer-songwriter or an aging pioneer is complete without a lazy swipe at the supposed intolerance of the Nashville plutocracy or the cravenness of country-radio programmers. The truth is that country remains one of America’s most vital commercial radio formats driven by a singularly weird mix of teenagers and parents of teenagers pop melodrama and old-school stoicism.
Duke Erikson on Pushin’ Too Hard by the Seeds
Times nline – Feb 24, 2008
ther voices bellowed and answered with the words “Too haaaard”. The song was magical and crude scary and hilarious its simplicity belyingthe genius of its construction. Those two chords go back and forth while thevocals and guitar paint the perfect picture of manic energy. Sky Saxon (right) the troubled brain behind it had a voice that sounded likea bratty little kid who just may be dangerous. The Seeds were part of theflower-power generation but they brought a darkness and an edge to it. Myband the British (such was my love for all things Brit) learnt Pushin’ TooHard and performed it at local halls and those two simple chords were justas wondrous to play as they were to hear. I moved on to other songs otherbands and Sky Saxon and the Seeds moved on to where most such musicianseventually ended up – victims of the music biz drugs flighty fansunscrupulous managers or just time.
What’s Happening in Pernambuco? – Nik Bartsch’s Ronin – Jacob Golden …
New York Times – Feb 24, 2008
Jacob GoldenCouples break up; so do bands and the songwriter Jacob Golden who was once in a band called Birthday embraces the overlap on his album “Revenge Songs” (Echo). Made mostly alone in a home studio in Portland re. where apparently the spirit of Elliott Smith lingers within every acoustic guitar he ponders both a wounded heart and a fitful career sometimes both at the same time. “Will you please come see me” he sings in “I’m Your Man” continuing “We could form a new band. ” But the guitars ring he overdubs his high voice into plaintive but lush choruses and his openly mixed motives save him from the temptations of self-pity. Toumani DiabateThank the globalization of world music — and listeners who don’t understand the words of the griot songs but are drawn to the mesmerizing intricacies of their traditional accompaniments on the 21-stringed harp called a kora — for the increasing emergence of the kora as a solo instrument. Toumani Diabate who comes from an ancient family line of griots has been pushing his legacy in multiple directions and his new album “The Mande Variations” (Nonesuch) is the work of a modern virtuoso rethinking an age-old instrument… “Will you please come see me” he sings in “I’m Your Man” continuing “We could form a new band. ” But the guitars ring he overdubs his high voice into plaintive but lush choruses and his openly mixed motives save him from the temptations of self-pity. Toumani DiabateThank the globalization of world music — and listeners who don’t understand the words of the griot songs but are drawn to the mesmerizing intricacies of their traditional accompaniments on the 21-stringed harp called a kora — for the increasing emergence of the kora as a solo instrument. Toumani Diabate who comes from an ancient family line of griots has been pushing his legacy in multiple directions and his new album “The Mande Variations” (Nonesuch) is the work of a modern virtuoso rethinking an age-old instrument. Its compositions are solos without overdubs and the music is as consonant and meditative as any New Age album but more profound. He turns the syncopated propulsion of griot songs into cascading counterpoint or hangs simple melodies in midair or constructs filigrees with each note as precisely weighted as the phrases of a Renaissance lute piece. n its own in close-up the kora sounds radiant.
Telling stories on the kora
Taipei Times – Feb 24, 2008
It was the time of independence [Mali broke away from French rule in 1960] and the president had asked him my mother – a fine singer – and other musicians to form a national traditional band. So I taught myself listening to my father and grandfather and different musicians. ” His influences include not just the griots and guitar-based African bands like Senegal’s rchestra Baobab but Jimi Hendrix tis Redding the Scorpions Bad Company and Pink Floyd. “But music was a gift to me from God” he says. The kora is constructed from the shell of a large gourd the calabash decorated and covered in cow skin; it has a long neck with 21 strings made from nylon fishing line. The instrument is treated with great respect – students at the Bamako conservatory where Diabate teaches have to make a ritual offering of kola nuts “as a sign of respect” before they touch the kora for the first time. Diabate is a devout Muslim with his own prayer room next to his office and for him the kora is a “deep and spiritual instrument… People don’t know that the kora is a great classical instrument. But while Diabate sets out to educate Western audiences he still has the duties of a modern-day griot to fulfill. Late one night in Bamako he performs at the Tamani Awards (Mali’s music awards) where he is honored for the “best traditionally inspired music. ” From there he moves on to the Hogon the open-air club where he plays every Friday night when he’s in Bamako and has done for 16 years. The dance floor is in semi-darkness lit only by the moon a strip of green neon behind the stage and a few lights behind the bar. The Symmetric rchestra has been playing for hours by the time Diabate joins them at nearly 2:30am. He sits at the back of the stage talking on his mobile phone then joins in cutting through the massed percussion and electric guitar improvising on his amplified kora.
Hot Club of San Francisco celebrates unique music of Django Reinhardt
Tulsa World – Feb 24, 2008
“But the quality of the band keeps going up — I haven’t had a better band than the group I’ve got now. ” ne of the reasons why this music requires a more than casual commitment is the physical demands of playing it. Especially on guitar. “The guitars you use are specific for this music and they can be hard to find” Mehling said. “They are a little like classical guitars but with steel strings. And the action is set high so you can play hard if you need to clip notes short or let them resonate. It gives a very distinct sound.
Written by admin on February 24th, 2008 with
no comments.
Read more articles on News.