Posts Tagged ‘Blues’
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You don´t miss anything cause of this small cover, it´s so boring and lacking in ideas, let´s concentrate on the music and Helge Schneider.
Helge Schneider is a phenomenon. As a highschool-dropout he toured for years as a little-known Jazz musician and stand-up comedian through small clubs in Germany, besides he started acting in his own movies. Of course produced with almost no budget and full off extremely anarchic and absurd humour, in two words: uproariously funny! But his humour deeply roots in German language and I think it sadly do not translate well into other languages.
Schneider soon gathered a small, but die-hard fanbase with these movies and his comedian tours which always come along with a lot of live Jazz. And then in the mid-90s, from almost one day to the other, Helge Schneider became widely popular in Germany, his movies were Blockbusters, he played in front of thousands. And he still kept his anarchic parodies, the sudden and unexpected use of infantile language, his Dada-esque absurdity and crude humour. Of course he acts milder on the big screen, but not that much and until today he is one of the very very few “comedians” I don´t immediately switch away on national TV.
And besides all that Helge Schneiders records fine jazz music, they aren´t very wide-spread, I also bet a lot people even don´t know he plays jazz. “Laut!” is a session recording with The Firefuckers (Thomas Alkier, Thomy Jordi, Eric St-Laurent) and Schneider playing the BR3 (besides piano and melodica). Grooving organ Jazz with Rock and Blues influences, always laid back instrumentalists with a lot of fun. Nothing mind blowing, but a charming Jazz session.
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Though William Elliott Withmore has yet to reach 30, with his gravelly voice he can sing with dignity about themes of mortality, loss and redemption. The guy has definitively a singing voice you normally would expect from older men. With his stripped-down instrumentation of banjo and guitar – occasionally augmented by a bare-bones band – William Elliott Whitmore taps into the most primal themes of inescapable death and unforgivable sin. And you will ask yourself why this man with a banjo can silence your voice and goosebump your skin. He’s not pushing the boundaries of his chosen genre. But there’s something arresting in Will’s love for this old music, his love and respect for the genre give the songs a magic feeling. I can sit on my balcony in the noisy metropolis (at least the people living here think it is an important metropolis), close my eyes and imagine sitting on William´s farm in Iowa.
- In: beat | Music
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Bernd Friedman a.k.a. Burnt Friedman (and other uncountable pseudonyms) invited 20 musicians from Auckland, Sydney, Melbourne, Copenhagen, Cape Town, Santiago de Chile and Cologne to participate in making “Can’t Cool”, a fascinating blend of styles and sounds that always keeps you on the edge of your seat. This record provides another zest clue in introducing the means of Dub-music, but stop, not only in the classical dub way or in the modern meaning of dub productions with the mixer as the central method. “Can´t cool” introduces the means of Dub-music production to various genres: blues, soul, klezmer and afrofunk without spending time wasting sound-effects. The tracks are relatively short and compact although they contain a large amount of live instruments. The record is an exotic afro-dub hybrid with more than a blend of soulful songs with the featured vocalists Abi, Patrice, Lovetta Pippin and Theo Altenberg. Burnt Friedman appears to have put aside his penchant for shapeshifting games and jazz, but perhaps it’s still lurking there deep down under the mellifluous tones and guest vocals. Can’t Cool is a heavier, more richly melodic sound than his previous music.
Just listen to the opening track “fuck back” and take a comfortable seat in your virtuel coffee shop, awesome and there are eleven more tracks to come. “Can´t cool” from 2003 is a masterpiece and what seemed initially to be straightahead and smooth is revealed to be complex, detailed and a real work of art.
Som Três – som tres show
Posted on: June 6, 2009
- In: beat | Music
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Groovy, groovy, groovy. Pianist Cesar Camargo Mariano kicks out with his trio some smart and entertaining ultra tight played jazzy and bossa nova flavoured tunes. Brasil groove of the late 60s which puts together Jazz, Funk, Bossa Nova and Blues and vary regulary the moods, without loosing the thread. Awesome instrumentals and some tracks also offer slight vocals. Relax and groove with the Som Três Show, brasil fusion.
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