Montag, 30. September 2019

Liedehrlich - Same (Amiga, 1983)

Folk groups enjoyed their high point of popularity in the GDR between 1976 and 1983. This development was related with the "Liedertheater" and the "Singebewegung".

The most famous groups were Folkländer from Leipzig, Wacholder from Cottbus, and Liedehrlich from Gera. Their appropriation of the German democratic folksong tradition of the Vormärz and 1848 was particularly creative. Jürgen Wolff of the group Folkländer summed up how this contradiction worked in favor of the musicians with regard to their reviving of German folk songs that had been oppositional in their particular period of history:

"Besonderer Wert wird dabei neben den beliebten Gesellen- und Trinklieder auf Gesellschaftskritisches gelegt: oppositionelle Soldatenlieder, Auswandererlieder, 1848er Texte. Kann man doch damit Parallelen zu Miss-Ständen in der DDR andeuten, die vom Publikum sehr wohl verstanden werden, obwohl diese Lieder offiziell als fortschrittliches Kulturerbe gelten." (Folker! 3/2001)



Tracklist:

A1 Der arme Schwartenhals 2:17
A2 Der Bettler 2:50
A3 König von Preussen 2:20
A4 Ade, mein Lieb 1:55
A5 Der Fuggerin Tanz 1:23
A6 Hansel, dein Gretelein 2:45
A7 Branntweinlied eines Schusters 2:06
A8 Lauf, Müller, lauf 3:55
B1 Wohl dem, der für die Dummheit glüht 2:15
B2 Der Lumpensammler 2:06
B3 Meiner Mutter Schnee 1:45
B4 Altdeutscher Tanz 1:25
B5 Marielied 1:50
B6 Muckerlied 2:23
B7 Lied vom Clown 2:40
B8 Tanz, Mägdlein, tanz 1:45
B9 Sind wir nicht die Musikanten 2:30
B10 Der Winter ist vergangen 2:30

Liedehrlich - Same (Amiga, 1983)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Sonntag, 29. September 2019

Sun Ra Arkestra - Music From Tomorrow´s World (1960)

"Music From Tomorrow's World" is a fascinating document and a boon to Sun Ra collectors. It gathers previously unheard tapes from two sources: one from the Wonder Inn club and one from Majestic Hall, probably a rehearsal. Both were recorded in 1960, toward the end of the Arkestra's Chicago period. The Wonder Inn tape is especially revealing, as it presents the Arkestra in front of a crowd.

And although Saturn album releases from the period feature Ra compositions almost exclusively, this set shows they played standards as well during their live shows. The sound is surprisingly good, although one wishes the woman near the tape recorder would shut up once in a while. (Her comments range from "You gonna take me to eat?" to "Play it, Sun Ray! Play it like you want!") The first two tunes feature flutes heavily, then John Gilmore takes over the show starting with "Space Aura." Ricky Murray croons up a storm on the Gershwin standard "S Wonderful," with great Arkestra backing vocals on both Gershwin tunes. Ra's arrangement of "It Ain't Necessarily So" is quite interesting, and his arrangement of "China Gate" was clearly the inspiration for his own "Overtones of China" on the album "Visits Planet Earth".

The sound on the Majestic Hall session is not nearly as good, but the music surely is. This set has the Arkestra concentrating on original compositions, except for Harry Revel's "Possession" (another composer fascinated by space in the '50s). Gilmore is, again, in fine form, and there is the added bonus of four tracks that have not been otherwise recorded or identified. "Music From Tomorrow's World" is a fantastic document that casts some new light on an important period of the Arkestra's career. This was when it all came together for this one-of-a-kind band: the music, the costumes, the cosmology, and overall presentation. Shortly after, the Arkestra would leave Chicago for good. The Delmark albums and Evidence reissues of Saturn albums from the period would be the first stopping place for the Sun Ra novice, but "Music From Tomorrow's World" is highly recommended for fans of this important early portion of the Arkestra's history.

Tracklist:
                                                    
Live At The Wonder Inn:
1Angels & Demons At Play3:21
2Spontaneous Simplicity3:10
3Space Aura3:26
4S'Wonderful3:34
5It Ain't Necessarily So4:40
6How High The Moon6:26
7China Gate3:58

The Majestic Hall Session:
8Majestic 14:27
9Ankhnaton3:53
10Posession6:25
11Tapestry From An Asteroid2:03
12Majestic 26:02
13Majestic 33:03
14Majestic 46:21
15Velvet4:33
16A Call For All Demons2:02
17Interstellar Lo-Ways (Introduction)0:28

Sun Ra Arkestra - Music From Tomorrow´s World (1960)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Slapp Happy - BBC Live 1974 & Reunion Concert 1983

Avant-pop cult favorites "Slapp Happy" formed in Hamburg, Germany in 1972; there vocalist Dagmar Krause, a veteran of the folk group the "City Preachers", first met British experimental composer Anthony Moore, who had previously issued a pair of solo LPs, "Pieces from the Cloudland Ballroom" and "Secrets of the Blue Bag", on Polydor.

When the label rejected a third Moore record, he instead proposed a pop project, recruiting Krause and New York-born guitarist Peter Blegvad to form "Slapp Happy"; recorded with input from members of the famed Krautrock band "Faust", the trio issued their debut album "Sort of..." in 1972, its commercial prospects severely limited as a result of the band's refusal to perform live.

Still, Polydor assented to a follow-up, with "Slapp Happy" soon convening to record "Casablanca Moon"; the label rejected the album, however, and upon landing at Virgin, the trio re-recorded the disc in its entirety, releasing it as a self-titled effort in 1974. "Slapp Happy" next banded together with the like-minded art-rock outfit Henry Cow to record a pair of collaborative LPs, "Desperate Straights" and "In Praise of Learning"; creative tensions then forced Moore and Blegvad to exit the project, although Krause continued singing with Henry Cow though their 1980 dissolution.

In the meantime, both Moore and Blegvad pursued solo careers, although in 1982 they reunited with Krause to record a new "Slapp Happy" single, "Everybody's Slimmin'," followed by their first-ever live appearance at London's ICA. All three again collaborated in 1991 on "Camera", a television opera commissioned by the BBC and broadcast two years later; a new "Slapp Happy" studio album, "Ça Va", followed in 1998. "Camera" was issued two years later.                

The sound of this bootleg is not good, not bad - it is a great document!

Tracklist:

1 Europa
2 A Little Something
3 War
4 Me & Paravati
5 Everybody's Slimmin'
6 Michelangelo
7 Some Questions About Hats
8 Excerpt from the Messiah
9 Riding Tigers
10 Casablanca Moon
11 A Little Something
12 Small Hands Of Stone
13 World Service
14 Me & Parvati
15 Karen
16 The Naked Shakespeare (Instrumental)
17 O For The Ocean
18 Moritat
19 Haiku
20 Tattoo Lady

Musicians:
[1-4] BBC Top Gear 1974.6.25
Anthony Moore (piano, vocals, organ, harpsichord)
Peter Blegvad (acoustic guitar, guitar, vocals)
Dagmar Krause (lead vocals)
Fred Frith (guitar)
Lindsay Cooper (bassoon, oboe)
Geoff Leigh (soprano saxophone, flute, clarinet)
Jeff Clyne (double bass)
Robert Wyatt (vocals, percussion)

[5-20] I.C.A. London 1983
Anthony Moore (piano, vocals, organ, harpsichord)
Peter Blegvad (acoustic guitar, guitar, vocals)
Dagmar Krause (lead vocals)

Slapp Happy - BBC Live 1974 & Reunion Concert 1983
(192 kbps, cover art included)

Dagmar Krause - Supply & Demand (Songs by Brecht/Weill / Eisler)


Image

It seems odd to consider the work of Dagmar Krause as specifically rock, mainly due to her superb talent singing non-rock popular music. It is because of her association with German progressive rockers Slapp Happy, and British avant-garde prog rockers Henry Cow and the Art Bears that Krause becomes a suitable subject for inclusion in guides to rock & roll. And, ultimately, that's a good thing, because talent as formidable as hers should not go unheard, nor should it be relegated to some arcane status ostensibly beyond the interests of the "average" rock fan. Simply, Dagmar Krause is a great singer, and you'd be wise to own some of her recordings. A native of Hamburg, Germany, Krause began her professional career at 14 as a nightclub singer in the Reeperbahn sex district (made infamous by the wanton exploits of the pre-fame Beatles). At the time, Hamburg, along with numerous sex joints and prostitution, had a thriving avant-garde arts scene that attracted numerous European musicians interested in pursuing aesthetic freedom and musical experimentation. It was here she met Anthony Moore and Peter Blegvad and formed Slapp Happy.

Radical in both music and politics, the band relocated to London in the early '70s, eventually joining forces with progressives Henry Cow. After Cow's demise in 1980, Krause teamed up with former-bandmates guitarist Fred Frith and drummer Chris Cutler in the wonderfully anarchic Art Bears, who disbanded after three excellent records. Turning to solo work, Krause, in 1978, starred in a London production of the Bertolt Brecht/Kurt Weill play Mahagonny. As much as anything she'd sung up to this point, Krause's elegant alto was perfectly suited to the emotionally and politically charged music of Brecht and Weill. Embracing this German song tradition with gusto, Krause went on to record the most stunning work of her career, culminating in two extraordinary releases, "Supply and Demand" and "Tank Battles" (the latter the music of Hans Eisler), that are eloquent arguments for Krause's eminence as a singer in the German song tradition (something for which she doesn't receive enough credit).

As a vocalist, Krause is arguably something of an acquired taste. Her husky, vibrato-laden alto can suddenly swoop into a breathtaking upper register with a power that belies her small, frail physique. Her English singing retains a heavy German accent, but whether she sings in German or English (which she often does on the same record), she retains her impeccable phrasing and ability to inject the most oft-heard lyric with almost palpable emotion. In fact, Dagmar Krause belongs in the pantheon of great contemporary European singers along with June Tabor and Anne Briggs.

Although seeking out Krause's work with Slapp Happy, Henry Cow and the Art Bears is worthwhile, ultimately the democracy of a band means less Dagmar to listen to. Therefore, go straight to this amazing solo recording of Krause singing the music of Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill and Hans Eisler. It's approachable, accessible ("Mack the Knife" is here under its original title, "Moritat"), beautifully sung (her version of "Surabaya Johnny" is definitive) and very, very moving. This CD release adds a few tracks in english language, but regardless of what configuration you may purchase, the stunning vocal ability of Dagmar Krause will transport you.

(160 kbps, front cover included))

Samstag, 28. September 2019

Hans-Eckardt Wenzel & Steffen Mensching - Der Abschied der Matrosen vom Kommunismus (1993)

The most striking example of narrative role-play in the post-Biermann generation of "Liedermacher" in the GDR was that of Hans-Eckardt Wenzel and Steffen Mensching, who inhabited roles as clowns. Having begun in the "FDJ Singebewegung" with the group "Karls Enkel" in the late 1970s, they took the group to new heights of artistic experimentations in the early 1980s. In a state where the expression of "otherness" was a delicate matter, they spoke to a taste group of "Andersdenkenden" through the medium of the clonw´s mask. In the climate of censorship, the mask presented the possibility, as Wenzel himself put it, "auszusteigen ohne weggehen zu müssen" (Wenzel in an interview with Jens Rosbach, 1998). This temporary opting out was the implied narrative of Wenzel and Mensching´s songs, attractive for the frustrated intellectuals who made up their audience. Via the use of the clown masks and costumes and clownish antics Wenzel and Mensching took their audience into a world of surreal subversion where they could momentarily forget their poitical impotence. Supporters of reform, Wenzel and Mensching believed nonetheless in the ideals of socialism, and in this respect inhabited a socio-cultural milieu distinct from that of the dissident Prenzlauer Berg poets, who rejected the socialist cultural "Erbe" that so preoccupied Wenzel and Mensching in their songs, poems, and "Liedertheater" productions. 

They achieved fame in the 1980s with satirical productions such as the "Hammer=Rehwü" and the "Da Da eR" clowns’ series. Due to the heightened sensitivity surrounding the GDR public stage they decided to abandon singing their own lyrics and to express themselves via texts from poets of the literary ‘Erbe’. Using a technique of musical and theatrical disruption, they constructed montages from texts by, for example, Goethe, Hölderlin and Heine, highlighting where these ironically clashed with the ideological rhetoric of the GDR state. 

This literary montage approach has also served them well in the 1990s. Wenzel and Mensching’s "Aufenthalt in der Hölle", inspired by Arthur Rimbaud’s "Une Saison en Enfer", reflects the disorientation of the early years of unification and forms a clownesque account of the conflicts of a new society of winners and losers.

In "Der Abschied der Matrosen", first performed in January 1993, Wenzel and Mensching again address the issue of the absence of the utopian ideals in which one could formerly seek sanctuary. They sang: "Jetzt gibt es ja nicht mal mehr die Flucht, / Du bleibst der Ewig Doofe. / Na dann, bis gleich. Mit voller Wucht / Hinein in die Katastrophe." Behind the irony there is socialist resentment, on a local level, at the GDRs assimilation into the Federal Republic, but also anger, on a global level, at the devastating repercussions of the "Sieger"-mentality on the developing world. The production finishes with a parody of "Die Internationale", emphasizing the artists´ view of people in general - not just East Germans - as refugees in an alien world: "Völker hört die Matrosen! / Ob an Bord, ob auf Grund / Die ewig Heimatlosen, / Die beißt zuletzt der Hund."


Tracklist:

1. ENTREE
2. STEUERMANN
3. LINKSOPTIMIST
4. MURMANSKER SHANTY
5. NA STAROWJE DRUSJA!
6. KLEINES CEVENNEN-LIED
7. MATROSENHOSE
8. DER ABSCHIED DER MATROSEN
9. KANONENSHANTY
10. SIE WERDEN KOMMEN
11. SEEMANNSFRAUENLIED
12. ZWEIUNDNEUNZIGSTES TRINKLIED
13. SE EQUIVOCO LA PALOMA
14. ARSCH HOCH,IDIOTEN

(192 kbps, cover art included)

Donnerstag, 26. September 2019

Archie Shepp - Attica Blues (1972)

Refining his large-ensemble experiments of 1971, "Attica Blues" is one of Archie Shepp's most significant post-'60s statements, recorded just several months after authorities ended the Attica prison uprising by massacring 43 inmates and hostages.

Perhaps because Shepp's musical interests were changing, "Attica Blues" isn't the all-out blast of rage one might expect; instead, it's a richly arranged album of mournful, quietly agonized blues and Ellingtonian swing, mixed with a couple of storming funk burners. Of course, Shepp doesn't quite play it straight, bringing his avant-garde sensibilities to both vintage big band and contemporary funk, with little regard for the boundaries separating them all. His soloing on tenor and soprano is typically sharp-edged and modal, and his nasal, slicing tone on soprano is featured quite heavily. The stylishness of the slow numbers is undercut with quivering, faintly unsettling dissonances, and the up-tempo funk cuts recall the way Sly Stone's arrangements ping-ponged many different elements off each other in a gleeful organized chaos. That's especially true on the gospel-inflected title song, a monster of a groove that later became a hit on the acid jazz revival circuit (and stands up to anything recorded by straight-up funk bands of the era). 

In the same vein, "Blues for Brother George Jackson" sounds like an edgier Isaac Hayes-style blaxploitation soundtrack cut. Vocal ballads are plentiful, and Joe Lee Wilson ("Steam," a song Shepp would return to often) and Carl Hall (aka Henry Hull) both acquit themselves well; more debatable are the poetic recitations and the choice of flügelhornist/composer Cal Massey's young daughter Waheeda to sing "Quiet Dawn" (although Waheeda's almost-there intonation is effectively creepy).

Still, in the end, "Attica Blues" is one of Shepp's most successful large-group projects, because his skillful handling of so many different styles of black music produces such tremendously groovy results.

Stephen Davis of Rolling Stone said that it was "not just a masterpiece of protest: [...] it is more a politico/religious experience, an appeal to higher human consciousness to, for God's sake, help us out of this torment."

Archie Shepp - Attica Blues (1972)
(192 kbps, cover art included)

Tracklist:

Attica Blues 4:49
Invocation: Attica Blues 0:18
Steam, Part 1 5:08
Invocation To Mr. Parker 3:17
Steam, Part 2 5:10
Blues For Brother George Jackson 4:00
Invocation: Ballad For A Child 0:30
Ballad For A Child 3:37
Good Bye Sweet Pops 4:23
Quiet Dawn 6:12


Mittwoch, 25. September 2019

VA - 17. Festival des politischen Liedes (1987)

One of the important activities organized by the FDJ was „Das Festival des politischen Liedes“. The Oktoberklub began in 1968 a tradition of anniversary concerts which was so successful that the idea of an annual “Festival des politischen Liedes” emerged and became a reality in 1970. Such festivals had roven popular in other Eastern bloc countries and were to prove to be so in the GDR. They were organized by the Oktoberklub in cooperation with the FDJ and the local counil of Berlin (East) as an international gathering lasting eight days and featuring artists from about thirty countries. After each Festival a selection of the songs performed during the Festival was published on a record. Singers and music groups were chosen from all over the world, according to their political allegiance and/or because they represented minority groups which had been repressed by capitalist governments.

This album features recordings from the 17th "Festival des politischen Liedes", 15. - 22.02.1987.


Tracklist:


•01. Bajo El Sol De Bogota [León Gieco]
•02. The Ballad Of The Chrispus Attucks [Mike Glick] 
•03. Yo Soy De Uno Pueblo Sencillo [L. E. Mejía Godoy] 
•04. Masters Of War [Perry Friedman und Arno Wyznewski] 
•05. Sternenlied [Oktoberklub] 
•06. Doch Die Wärme Bricht Die Kälte [Städtler und Ruge]
•07. Senin Incin [Özay] 
•08. Tula Dubula [Abdullah Ibrahim] 
•09. Airstrip One [Oktoberklub] 
•10. Por Eso Luchamos [Cutumay Camones] 
•11. Rumba Pa' Tí [Lydie Auvray] 
•12. Der Kerker [Maria Dimtiriadi - K. Grigoreas] 
•13. Stempellied [Gisela May] 
•14. Der Thälmann - [Grenada, ансамбль "Гренада"] 
•15. Der Baum [Friedensmelodie] 
•16. Sólo Le Pido A Dios [Mercedes Sosa]


VA - 17. Festival des politischen Liedes (1987)
(192 kbps, cover art included)

Montag, 23. September 2019

Linton Kwesi Johnson - In Dub (1980)

Linton Kwesi Johnson is a towering figure in reggae music. Born in Kingston, Jamaica and raised in the Brixton section of London, Johnson invented dub poetry, a type of toasting descended from the DJ stylings of U-Roy and I-Roy. But whereas toasting tended to be hyperkinetic and given to fits of braggadocio, Johnson's poetry (which is what it was -- he was a published poet and journalist before he performed with a band) was more scripted and delivered in a more languid, slangy, streetwise style. Johnson's grim realism and tales of racism in an England governed by Tories was scathingly critical. The Afro-Brits in Johnson's poems are neglected by the government and persecuted by the police. Johnson was also instrumental (with his friend Darcus Howe) in the publication of a socialist-oriented London-based newspaper, Race Today, that offered him and other like-minded Britons, both black and white, an outlet to discuss the racial issues that, under Margaret Thatcher's reign, seemed to be tearing the country apart. For one so outspoken in his politics, Johnson's recorded work, while politically explicit, is not simply a series of slogans or tuneful/danceable jeremiads.

"LKJ in Dub" was released in 1980 on the Island Records label. It was produced by Linton Kwesi Johnson and Dennis Bovell (credited as Blackbeard). It contains dub versions of tracks from the two previous LKJ albums, "Forces of Victory" and "Bass Culture". This would be the last LKJ release for four years.

Tracklist:

Victorious Dub" – 3:32
"Reality [dub]" – 2:45
"Peach Dub" – 3:48
"Shocking [dub]" – 4:45
"Iron Bar Dub" – 3:42
"Bitch Dub" – 4:35
"Cultural Dub" – 3:27
"Brain Smashing Dub" – 3:27


(256 kbps, cover art included)

Sonntag, 22. September 2019

Pankow - Keine Stars (Amiga, 1986)

Pankow are a German rock band, founded in East Berlin in 1981. Their name came from the Berlin district of Pankow, which was once home to most of the officials of the East German government. The band's original lineup consisted of Jürgen Ehle, André Herzberg, Rainer Kirchmann, Jäcki Reznicek and Frank Hille. Other members were Stefan Dohanetz, Ingo York and Jens Jensen.

As their lyrics often contained criticism of the East German regime, they frequently encountered problems releasing their music. "Like many writers, they were among the established names of aesthetic subversion," the journalist Christoph Dieckmann wrote in a 1999 article published in Rolling Stone.


Tracklist:
Keine Stars – 2:12
Die Band – 4:17
Wetten, du willst – 4:10
Isolde – 3:40
Doris – 5:15
Gut Nacht – 3:15
Nebel – 5:05
Er will anders sein – 4:13
Trübsal – 2:03
Das Zauberwort heißt Rock’n Roll – 5:26

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Samstag, 21. September 2019

Kurt Weill - Der Kuhhandel - Shady Dealing (1992, Jan Latham-König)

Hitler's accession to the Chancellorship of Germany triggered one of history's largest exoduses of brains and talent, from which both Germany and Austria have only begun to recover. Kurt Weill and Bert Brecht were two among many who decided to get out while the getting was good. Weill went first to Paris, where he and Brecht collaborated on their powerful ballet-cantata "Die sieben Todsünden" ("the seven deadly sins"). After a bit of knocking about, Weill next went to London, where a West End theater producer wanted a Kurt Weill "show." After the heady cultural mix of the Weimar Republic, Weill found himself for the first time in a truly commercial environment. He asked Hungarian-born Robert Vambery, formerly the literary director of the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm and now, like Weill, on the run from the Nazis, for a libretto. It seemed a wise choice for Weill. Among other things, Vambery had translated Gilbert and Sullivan's "Pirates of Penzance" into German for a successful run, and therefore Weill had confidence in his librettist's ability to gauge British taste. Unfortunately for the two of them, British popular entertainment had changed since Gilbert's day, not necessarily for the better. Weill was told to cut altogether or to replace some of the more complex musical numbers with simpler ones - both musically and lyrically (he complied; new, more conventional lyrics were supplied by Englishman Desmond Carter). The story changed from a political-ethical one (wherein lay Weill's chief artistic interests) concerning a U.S. business propping up a South American dictatorship to a variant on Zorro - in short, a story of star-crossed lovers. "Der Kuhhandel" ("that business with the cow," or, more idiomatically, "horse trading" or "shady dealing") became "A Kingdom for a Cow", which closed as a success d'estime after a few performances in 1934. From then to 1990, the original work I don't believe had been heard.

Historically at least, it's an important score. It represents the first step of Weill's journey toward "Lady in the Dark" - the transformation from major modernist to Broadway tunesmith and, slightly later, to one of the great innovators of the American lyric theater. Weill resurrector David Drew's essay, "Der Kuhhandel as a Key Work" (from a New Orpheus: Essays on Kurt Weill, Kim Kowalke, ed. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1986. ISBN 0-300-04616-2) argues the influence of Offenbach via the libretto translations and revisions by satirist Karl Kraus and a view of the work as "Weill's first attempt to write 'light music' as the man in the street understood it." Drew also points out, however, the music's considerable structural sophistication, even amid Weill's deliberate simplifications of style. It's also the first and one of the most pointed of his commentaries on the Nazis. As Drew points out, "Der Kuhhandel… could only have been written after March 1933. Its reflections on the subjects of dictatorship and war belong to the European era that began with the Nazi seizure of power." In short, Vambery had provided Weill with a remarkably multi-layered libretto, and Weill responded not with his "usual" manner, but with an ardent attempt to renew his theater music through broader appeal without losing his artistic soul. That became the problem he wrestled with for the rest of his short life. In works like "Johnny Johnson", "Street Scene", and "Lost in the Stars", I believe he won out. "Kingdom for a Cow" shredded, smoothed, and trivialized a complex original "Kuhhandel" in the mill of commercial pressure. Weill had to "learn the ropes" before he could break free of them.

I should point out that this performance is not the complete score as Weill and Vambery originally conceived it. Some of the most interesting numbers are left out, including "The Ballad of Pharaoh" and a "Disarmament Fugue." The CD leaves me wanting more. Vambery had supplied a very Gilbertian libretto but with considerable political sting, and Weill responded with music that reminds me very much of the Offenbach "topical" operettas, filtered of course through Weill's fascination with cabaret music and his flirtation in this score with "Latin" rhythms. Where Gilbert is indulgent toward the foolishness and arrogance of government, Vambery is mostly scathing, though still funny. One can well imagine, however, that British West End audiences didn't really want to hear something so upsetting in an "entertainment" and in any case wouldn't have gotten the many in-jokes on Nazi rhetoric. Weill's music, while simpler than, say, "The Seven Deadly Sins", still makes use of extended arias and scena, rather than the 32-bar song. One of the hero's arias, however, starts almost note for note identical to the later "September Song" from Weill's "Knickerbocker Holiday". To me, this shows that even on Broadway, Weill never settled for the commercially tried and true. It just happened to fail in 1934 London and click in 1938 New York. It's not really fair to judge Weill's "Kuhhandel" on the basis of this CD, since the most powerful parts of the score have gone unrecorded. The excerpts given are fine in themselves, but not sufficient. We need a complete recording of this, as well as of the major scores of "Die Bürgschaft" and "Weg der Verheissung".

The performance is capable, but not more than that. Oskar Hillebrandt as the villainous General tends to shout, rather than sing, under the mistaken impression that he's acting. You often can't tell what notes he's supposed to hit, but he represents the bad exception. The rest of the cast is decent, if not wonderful, although Udo Holdorf's oily Goebbels-like character is genuinely funny. Latham-König gives a nice bounce to Weill's dance-band rhythms and also reveals the Romantic idealism at the heart of Weill's musical irony.

Recorded sound is a shade too bright, even harsh, but since this is the only recording of a seminal Weill score, genuine fans like me will have to bear it. - www.classical.net


Tracklist:

Erster Akt
1 Auftrittslied Des Generals: "Schockschwere Not!" (General) 2:45
2 Terzettino: "Du Lieber Gott Was Machen Wir" (Präsident, Ximenez, Jones) 2:01
3 Zweite Ansprache Des Präsidenten: "Vortrefflich!" (Präsident) 1:08
4 Der Mädchenraub: "Ich Wohne Auf Der Anderen Seite Des Flusses" (Juan, 3 Burschen, Emilio, Mädchen, Juanita) 7:30
5 "Ich Muß Jetzt Gehn" (Juan, Mutter, Emilio, Juanita) 3:14
6 Juan's Lied: "Seit Ich In Diese Stadt Gekommen" (Juan) 2:40
7 "Seht, Wie Die Sterne Strahlen" (Ximenez, Präsident, General) 4:30
8 Lied Des Gerichtsvollziehers: "Triffst Du Mich Abends" (Gerichtsvollzieher, Juan, Chor) 3:13
9 Quartett: "An Das Volk Von Santa Maria" (Emilio, Juanita, Mutter, Juan) 2:10
10 Reprise: "Ich Muß Jetzt Gehn" (Juan, Mutter, Emilio, Juanita) 1:38
11 Finale Erster Akt: "Der Herr General!" (1. Und 2. Diener, Chor Der Gäste, Ximenez, Präsident, Minister, Redakteur, Jones, General, 1., 2. Und 3. Gast, Juan, Juanita, Chor Hinter Der Brühne) 16:38

Zweiter Akt
12 Fandango: "Weiß Fällt Auf's Feld Der Schnee" (General) 3:33
13 Juan's Lied: "Ich Habe Eine Kuh Gehabt" (Juan) 2:42
14 Finale Zweiter Akt: "Was, Du Glaubst?" (Juanita, Juan, Chor Der Veteranen, Chor Der Würdentrüager, Chor Der Soldaten, Chor Der Bürgerschaft, General, Chor Der Bevölkerung, Ximenez, Mädchenchor, Odette, Bürgermeister, 1., 2. Und 3. Soldat)


Kurt Weill - Der Kuhhandel - Shady Dealing (1992, Jan Latham-König)
(ca. 320 kbps, cover art included)

Dienstag, 17. September 2019

Pete Seeger - If I Had A Hammer - Songs Of Hope & Struggle

Pete Seeger's repertoire was not limited to songs with specific sociopolitical goals, and the most familiar versions of his most popular tunes were done for Columbia. Still, it's hard to imagine doing better than this compilation of Folkways recordings (most from the late '50s and '60s) if you want evidence of Seeger's importance and skills as a spokesperson for worthy causes. Dividing into segments addressing "unions and labor," "peace," "civil rights," and "hope," this has the original 1956 versions of "If I Had a Hammer" and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," along with other tunes identified with Seeger like "We Shall Overcome" and "Turn! Turn! Turn!" (the last from an unreleased tape of unspecified vintage). 

The liner notes explain the origins of each song, as well as how their structures have evolved over the years; a couple of 1998 tracks show his spirit intact, but his voice (as he himself admits) losing strength.


Tracklist:

1. "If I Had a Hammer (Hammer Song)" 1:56
2. "Banks of Marble" 3:17
3. "Which Side Are You On?" 2:09
4. "Casey Jones (The Union Scab)" 1:58
5. "Talking Union" 3:05
6. "Joe Hill" 2:32
7. "Union Maid" 2:16
8. "Step by Step" 1:37
9. "Solidarity Forever" 2:54
10. "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" 2:05
11. "Talking Atom (Old Man Atom)" 2:29
12. "Crow on the Cradle" 2:25
13. "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream" 2:30
14. "Study War No More (Down by the Riverside)" 3:12
15. "Bourgeois Blues" 2:07
16. "River of My People" 3:06
17. "Hold On (Keep Your Hand on the Plow)" 3:21
18. "We Shall Overcome" 4:42
19. "He Lies in the American Land" 2:01
20. "Well May the World Go" 2:40
21. "Turn, Turn, Turn" 2:46
22. "Tomorrow is a Highway" 3:32
23. "Oh, Had I a Golden Thread" 3:29
24. "We'll All Be A-Doubling" 1:58
25. "Arrange and Rearrange" 4:52
26. "If I Had a Hammer (Hammer Song)"  2:10

(320 kbps, cover art included)


Montag, 16. September 2019

Gojim - Es firt kejn weg zurik (1992)

Gojim's album "Es firt kejn weg zurik..." includes 15 Yiddish songs from the Vilnius Ghetto 1941 - 1943.

The Vilna Ghetto was a World War II Jewish ghetto established and operated by Nazi Germany in the city of Vilnius in the territory of Nazi-administered Reichskommissariat Ostland.

During the approximately two years of its existence starvation, disease, street executions, maltreatment, and deportations to concentration and extermination camps reduced the ghetto's population from an estimated 40,000 to zero.

Only several hundred people managed to survive, mostly by hiding in the forests surrounding the city, joining Soviet partisans, or sheltering with sympathetic locals.

"Much more intense and Brechtian, with stunning harmonies and virtuoso solos with a tender undercurrant, are Gojim, an ensemble of six Viennese conceived in 1987 by the Burgtheater actress Caroline Koczan.” - Int. Herald Tribune


Tracklist:

1 Es is gewen a sumer-tog
2 Zi darf ess asoj sajn ?
3 Hot sich mir di schich zerissn
4 Doss transsport-jingl
5 Du geto majn
6 Pak sich ajn
7 Mir lebn ejbik
8 Friling
9 Arojss is in Wilne a najer bafel
10 Ponar-wiglid
11 Bombess
12 Izik Witnberg
13 Partisaner-marsch
14 Ess schlogt di scho


Gojim - Es firt kejn weg zurik (1992)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Sonntag, 15. September 2019

Sun Ra And The Arkestra - Sound Of Joy

Sound of Joy is an album by Sun Ra and his Arkestra. It features the Arkestral lineup during the last few months of 1956, after trombonist Julian Priester left to join Lionel Hampton, Charles Davis became a regular member of the band, and Victor Sproles took over on bass. It was intended as the follow-up to "Jazz By Sun Ra" but Transition Records ceased to operate before it could be released.
Four of the tracks were included on "Sun Ra and his Solar Arkestra Visits Planet Earth", released in 1966. The entire LP was eventually released in 1968 by Delmark Records, who also re-issued "Jazz by Sun Ra". Two ballads, written by Sun Ra and sung by Clyde Williams, were left off the original album, however, because the president of Delmark Records, Bob Koester, "felt they didn't fit with the other pieces on the session." The songs were reinstated when the album was re-issued on CD in 1994.

This reissue, prior to the release of many of Sun Ra's Saturn albums on Evidence CDs, was often thought of as Ra's second recording although now several earlier dates have appeared.
The music from Sun Ra's Chicago-based band of the 1950s (some of the same tunes, but different performances, also appear on Evidence's Planet Earth/Low Ways) is quite interesting for its ties to the bop and swing traditions are much more obvious than it would be in the near future.
Ra's eccentric piano and occasional electric keyboard look forward as do some of the harmonies and Jim Herndon's colorful tympani. Two previously unissued cuts (other versions of which have also surfaced on an Evidence set) augment the original LP program.       

Recorded in November 1957. CD reissue of the 1968 Delmark LP. Tracks 10 & 11 are previously unissued bonus tracks.

Tracklist:
1El Is A Sound Of Joy3:59
2Overtones Of China3:21
3Two Tones3:38
4Paradise4:27
5Planet Earth4:21
6Ankh6:28
7Saturn3:58
8Reflections In Blue6:18
9El Viktor2:30
10As You Once Were4:17
11Dreams Come True3:51

Sun Ra And The Arkestra - Sound Of Joy
(192 kbps, cover art included)  

Samstag, 14. September 2019

Rebel MC - Black Meaning Good (1991)

The '80s popster turned proto-jungle revolutionary was born Michael West in 1965 in London. He formed Double Trouble in the early '80s with Michael Menson and Leigh Guest, releasing the ska-pop hit "Street Tuff." 

Rebel MC later gained fame in England as a pop-rapper, but by 1991 he had released "Black Meaning Good", an album that presaged jungle with hardcore techno married to dub basslines and ragga toasters such as Barrington Levy and P.P. Arnold. 

His 1992 singles "Rich Ah Getting Richer" and "Humanity" also showed the new direction. "Code Red" -- released as Conquering Lion -- became an outright jungle smash in 1994, bringing the jungle movement to the British masses.


Tracklist:

A1 Black Meaning Good
A2 Keep On Steppin
A3 No Man Is An Island
A4 Soul Rebel
A5 Word Of The Ghetto
A6 Afrikan
A7 Culture
B1 The Wickedest Sound
B2 Live Good
B3 Tribal Base
B4 Comin' On Strong
B5 Soul Sister
B6 Test The Champion


(320 kbps, cover art included)

Slapp Happy & Henry Cow - Desperate Straights (1975)

There can't be many instances of an entire band merging with another, but that's what happened back in 1974 when eccentric avant popsters Slapp Happy joined avant prog heroes Henry Cow. And (of course) Henry Cow joined Slapp Happy. A rather gnomic press release from the time suggested that "both groups, though different, were the same'. Mmmm....

Slapp Happy (Peter Blegvad, Anthony Moore, Dagmar Krause) had already recorded one album for Virgin, and their charmingly quirky brand of surrealist pop had Mr Branson and his chums thinking they may have had a commercially viable band on their books. A merger with one of the most musically and politically radical bands of the time (also on Virgin) wasn't likely to enhance their earning potential much, but this was the seventies after all.

"Desperate Straights" was recorded before the merger became 'official'. Though the bulk of the material was composed by Blegvad and Moore, the results do feel like a genuine halfway house between the music of the two groups. Despite their reputation for being a difficult proposition, Henry Cow were keen to experiment with more conventional songs. Similarly Blegvad and Moore's avant-garde tendencies were given more room than they had been on their last Virgin effort.

A surprising team up at the time of its release (1975), "Desperate Straights" is a surprisingly melodic album, light on the art school angst and heavy on the playfulness, which one would hardly expect from such determined socialists as these. But here it is: "Some Questions About Hats" sounds like a Kurt Weill outtake, "A Worm Is at Work" gallops along with a sweet tune. Dagmar Krause remains restrained and not given to flights of horrible fancy. "Strayed" is reminiscient of Kevin Ayers's brand of art rock, and most of the songs clock in under two minutes. But never fear: the album ends on the eight minute "Caucasian Lullaby," a minimal woodwind piece that suddenly bursts into one last jab of Krausian despair.      

(Thanks to allmusic.com and bbc.co.uk!)

Tracklist:                           
Some Questions About Hats1:53
The Owl2:17
A Worm Is At Work1:52
Bad Alchemy3:06
Europa2:48
Desperate Straights4:14
Riding Tigers2:02
Apes In Capes2:16
Strayed1:54
Giants1:57
Excerpt From The Messiah1:49
In The Sickbay2:09
Caucasian Lullaby8:25


Slapp Happy & Henry Cow - Desperate Straights (1975)
(256 kbps, cover art included)

VA - Dancehall Explosion - 22 Killa Dancehall Classics (Trojan)

"Dancehall Explosion" is the sequel to "Dancehall Stylee" - another retrospective of dacnehall music from the Trojan label.

This collection of dancehall from the Trojan vaults, recorded in the early '80s, just barely predates dancehall's digital age.

Most of the tracks represent solid producers like Bunny Lee, Tad Dawkins, and Roy Cousins. Highlights include songs by Charlie Chaplin ("Entertainer," "One of a Kind"), Dennis Brown ("Unite Brother Man"), Barrington Levy ("Collie Weed"), and Don Carlos ("My Baby Jus Love 1 Man," "Johnnie Big Mouth").   



 Tracklist
1Charlie Chaplin Entertainer
2Earl SixteenJah Is The Master
3Barry BrownPlease Officer
4Delroy SmithRound The World
5Dennis BrownUnite Brother
6Charlie Chaplin One Of A Kind
7Earl SixteenCrisis
8Carlton LivingstonClass Of '69
9Barry BrownChucky Boo
10Neville BrownThe Right Time
11PurplemanKing On The Way
12George McKayMoney Money
13Don Carlos My Baby Just Love I Man
14Barrington LevyCollie Weed
15Anthony JohnsonSitting Everyday
16Derrick PitterThe World And It's People
17Earl SixteenHey Girl
18Phillip FraserHolding On
19Cornell CampbellThe Drifter
20Sister CandyConnection Connection
21Don Carlos Johnnie Big
22Tristan PalmerFor Health And Strength
     
VA - Dancehall Explosion - 22 Killa Dancehall Classics (Trojan)
(256 kbps, cover art included)  

Donnerstag, 12. September 2019

Muzsikás‎ - Nem Úgy Van Most, Mint Volt Régen (It´s Not Like It Used To Be) (Hungaroton, 1982)

This Hungarian group features Márta Sebestyén (vocals/recorder), Sándor Csoóri (bagpipes/hurdy-gurdy/viola/vocals), Mihaly Sipos (violin/zither/vocals), Péter Eri (bouzouki/turkish horn/cello/viola/vocals) and Dániel Hamar (bass/hurdy-gurdy/vocals). Muzsikás (pronounced ‘mu-zhi-kash’) specializes in traditional music from the Transylvania region of their country. Prior to 1987 Sebestyén had performed in the UK with a band called Mosaic. While still young, Sebestyén had heard her mother singing folk songs, so the interest in folk music passed on. Having won a competition at the age of 13, she was awarded a record player, which enabled her to listen to a wider sphere of music.

The style of music Muzsikás play is often patronizingly called ‘gypsy music’, but it is far more than just a tourist attraction. Changing from a high-speed dance one minute, to a slow and melancholy air, the music covers a whole range of emotions and tempos. Péter Eri had previously played with a group called Sebo, where he learned much about the background to folk music. The original Muzsikás was a trio comprising Sipos, Hamar and Csoóri. Eri joined them in 1978 after leaving Sebo. They recorded Muzsikas Ketto in Holland, but were not satisfied with the singer who had joined on lead vocals, so they asked Sebestyén to join them in 1979. A number of earlier recordings for the state-run label Hungaroton, are no longer available, but with the growing interest in Eastern European folk music, the possibility of re-releases seems likely. Sebestyén is also a celebrated solo artist.   

This recording was made in 1981 and then released in 1982. It offers a selction of traditional music typical in several regions of the Hungarian language area, which could be heard as such in local village communities. It is a document of the "dance house movement" of the 1970s in Hungary.


Tracklist:

A1Nem Úgy Van Most, Mint Volt Régen - It's Not Like It Used To Be
A2Adjon Isten Minden Jót - God Bless It All
A3Tudod-e Édesem - You Know Darling
A4Mezőségi Tánc - Folkdance
A5Altató - Lullaby
B1Félre Gatya, Pendely - I Want It All
B2Vonat - Train
B3Hulljatok Levelek - Falling Leaves
B4Legényes (II.) - Lads Dance (II.)
B5Mikor Mentem Hazafelé - On The Way Home


Muzsikás‎ - Nem Úgy Van Most, Mint Volt Régen (It´s Not Like It Used To Be) (Hungaroton, 1982)
(256 kbps, cover art included)

Mittwoch, 11. September 2019

Nina Hagen - Nina Hagen Band (1978)

"Nina Hagen Band" is the debut studio album by Nina Hagen Band. It was released on February 11, 1978 by CBS Records. It was the first release by German singer Nina Hagen after her 1976 expatriation from East Germany. When she arrived in Hamburg, her stepfather and singer-songwriter Wolf Biermann got her in touch with CBS. Hagen traveled to London where she was introduced to music genres such as punk and reggae, and befriended other artists including Ari Up of the band The Slits. After she returned to Germany, she met with musicians Herwig Mitteregger, Bernhard Potschka and Manfred Praeker. Joined by Reinhold Heil, they formed the Nina Hagen Band and in November 1977 signed a record deal with CBS. Nina Hagen Band was produced by the band with additional production by Tom Müller and Ralf Nowy. Most of the songs had been already written by Hagen in East Germany.

Upon its release, "Nina Hagen Band" received positive reviews from music critics, who praised Hagen's theatrical vocals, different from singing on her East German records. The album was a commercial success. In Germany, it peaked at number eleven and also reached charts in other countries, such as Austria and Netherlands. Nina Hagen Band was certified gold by Bundesverband Musikindustrie (BVMI) and has sold over 250,000 copies.

Four singles were released from the album: "TV-Glotzer", "Auf'm Bahnhof Zoo", "Naturträne" and "Unbeschreiblich weiblich". The album was promoted by a European tour. As a part of the promotion, Nina Hagen Band performed in Dortmund's Westfalenhalle in December 1978. The show was broadcast live by the music television show Rockpalast.

After Hagen's stepfather Wolf Biermann was expatriated from East Germany in 1976, she first stood up for his re-entry, but after her request was denied, she followed him to Hamburg. In January 1977, he got her in touch with CBS Records. Hagen was invited to London by Juliana Grigorova, who cast her in the movie "The Go-Blue Girl". Grigorova would later work with Hagen as a photographer. She shot the covers of her solo albums "NunSexMonkRock" (1982), "Fearless" (1983) and "Nina Hagen in Ekstasy" (1985). Hagen discovered new styles of music during her stay in London and got inspired mainly by punk. She met with Ari Up, the lead singer of the band The Slits and together they wrote the song "Pank", which later appeared on the album.

Inspired by the London music scene, Hagen returned to Berlin and met with the members of the band Lokomotive Kreuzberg, Manfred Praeker, Herwig Mittereggerand Bernhard Potschka. The three musicians were afterwards joined by Reinhold Heil and along with Hagen they created the Nina Hagen Band. In November 1977, the band signed a contract with CBS Records under the management of Jim Rakete.


Nina Hagen - Nina Hagen Band (1978)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Montag, 9. September 2019

Dog Faced Hermans - Mental Blocks For All Ages (1991)

There's something in the accessibly deconstructive sound of the Dog Faced Hermans that's both immediately likeable and long-term gratifying -- their combinations of scratchy guitar work, liberal use of horns and other instruments uncommon in rock, and ultra-political vocal rants fall somewhere between very angular neo-punk and the most experimental sides of new wave, but in a fashion that's more likely to engage than distance the listener. 

"Mental Blocks for All Ages"' tight performance and groovy, rhythmic construction fit perfectly with the sharpness of their free-form guitar attack and political commentary, recalling everything from the Scissor Girls to the Family Fodder's more aggressive side. The band rampages through compositions so fiercely and effectively that the record lives up to its fractured, deconstructive ambitions. An excellent release.

Tracklist:

A1 Punjabi Monster Beat
A2 Fortune
A3 Suppressa
A4 Astronaut
A5 Ballad About Bhopal
B1 The Running Man
B2 Body Strategic
B3 In A Row
B4 From The Top Of The Mountain
B5 It's Time


(192 kbps, cover art included)

Freitag, 6. September 2019

Frieder Butzmann - Vertrauensmann des Volkes (1981)

First released on the label Zensor in 1981 and reissued 20 years later as a limited-edition LP by 90% Wasser, Frieder Butzmann's "Vertrauensmann des Volkes" is a minor gem from the burgeoning German experimental/industrial scene. 

The composer's twisted vocal and electronic pieces make a worthy album on their own, but fans of the genre will want to track this item down for the appearances of Einstürzende Neubauten's Alex Hacke (on "Zivilisation," a striking minimal piece driven by the repetitive "whack" of a hammer) and Throbbing Gristle's Genesis P-Orridge (on "Just Drifting/Tales of Death," delivering a glacial narration). 

Other highlights include the dark "Hibakuscha" -- which almost crosses over to musique concrète -- and "Sadismus und Konkurenz," a fake crooner duet with Angelika Maisch that includes lines like "Sadism and competition/That is the German mechanism." Butzmann pushed electronic music into strange new places filled with cynicism. His systematic refusal to employ dance beats or standard melodies helps retain much of this LP's freshness. Some tracks sound dated, like the two versions of "Tonights Music" -- a crude cut-up (or early sampling) of a single sentence -- that close side one and open side two, and the bleakness is definitely early '80s.

(224 kbps, cover art included)

Donnerstag, 5. September 2019

VA - Port Of Spain Shuffle - Black Music In Britain In The Early 1950s Volume 1 (1987)

British Black music refers to music of the African diaspora, or music derived from the African diaspora which has been produced in Great Britain regardless of the ethnic background of the musicians.

Fashioned out of a collective Commonwealth-comes-to-Britain experience, London calypso was always more that just a Saturday night feel-good soundtrack (although its importance there shouldn’t be underestimated). It set the template for the black music styles that were to follow: start with a specific style (Trinidadian calypso); adapt it to the new environment (London’s ballrooms, pubs and broadcasters) with different audience/management expectations; acknowledge popularity of existing black musical forms (jazz and swing); and absorb the not-necessarily Trinidadian influences of the pool of players (West Africa, Guyana, Jamaica, the USA). The same intrinsic process created lovers rock reggae, britfunk and jungle, and provides a vivid line from 1940s London calypso superstars such as Sam Manning, Rudolph Dunbar and Freddie Grant through Eddy Grant, Carroll Thompson, Light Of The World and Soul II Soul to Rey BLK. Indeed, put Lord Kitchener next to Skepta and, really, the only thing separating them is the cut of their trousers.

London calypso’s success on its own terms gave Britain’s booming black presence the perfect platform from which to introduce itself, and, as proved to be the case in the future, the public at large happily embraced the real deal. During the 1950s calypso and West Indian culture made huge inroads into mainstream broadcasting. The BBC televised part of Claudia Jones’s first West Indian Carnival live from St Pancras Town Hall in 1959, featuring the cream of the UK’s Caribbean entertainers. Trinidadian music and dance duo Boscoe & Sheila Holder had a radio series called Caribbean Carnival, and their live West Indian-themed TV special Bal Creole was such a huge hit, public demand meant the BBC had to recreate it to show it again because it hadn’t been recorded. The Holders were also regulars on the black variety TV series Caribbean Carnival and, along with Edric Connor and Lord Kitchener, would frequently appear on black TV specials such as It’s Fun To Dance and We Got Rhythm. Guyanan barrister turned calypsonian Cy Grant had his own ITV chat show; and boogie woogie pianist Winifred Atwell, a Trinidadian native, featured much black talent on her primetime variety series, which proved so popular BBC and ITV got into a bidding war over it. Meanwhile, the music’s social commentary aspect saw it become the weapon of choice for the new breed of TV satirists on shows such as Tonightand That Was The Week That Was.

Tracklist:
A1 Lord Beginner With Cyril Blake's Calypso Serenaders - The Underground Train
A2 Lord Beginner With Cyril Blake's Calypso Serenaders - The Dollar And The Pound 
A3 Lord Beginner With Cyril Blake's Calypso Band - General Election 
A4 Cyril Blake's Calypso Band - Iere 
A5 Cyril Blake's Calypso Band - Man Smart And Woman Smarter 
A6 Lord Beginner With Calypso Rhythm Kings - Fedration 
A7 Calypso Rhythm Kings - Port Of Spain Shuffle 
A8 The Lion With Frederico's Calypso Band - Ugly Woman 
B1 The Lion With Frederico's Calypso Band - Tick! Tick! (The Story Of The Lost Watch) 
B2 Grand Lyttelton Paseo Jazz Band - King Porter Stomp 
B3 Grand Lyttelton Paseo Jazz Band - Fat Tuseday 
B4 Bill Rogers With Freddy Grant's Demerarians - Daddy Gone 
B5 Grand Lyttelton Paseo Jazz Band - London Blues 
B6 Bill Rogers With Freddy Grant's Demerarians* - Sightseeing In The UK 
B7 Grand Lyttelton Paseo Jazz Band With George Brown[e] - Mamzelle Josephine (In French Patois) 
B8 Tony Johnson With Calypso Serenaders And The Ebonaires - Linstead Market

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Dienstag, 3. September 2019

Charly Garcia - Vivo Con Gilberto Gil (1981)

Charly García is one of the most talented and influential figures of Argentine and Latin rock. He composed many generational songs and was obsessed with expanding the boundaries of pop music, along with musician's role itself.

Between 1978 and 1982, Charly García was part of Serú Girán, one of the key bands in the Argentinian rock movement. They recorded five albums while the country was under a sordid dictatorship. The band provided a subtle offering of resistance.

Gilberto Gil was a leader of Brazil's Tropicalia movement during the late 1960s along with artists Caetano Veloso, Marcos Valle, and Gal Costa. The multi-instrumentalist mixed native styles like samba, MPB, and bossa nova with rock and folk instruments to become one of Brazil's, and the world's most celebrated singer/songwriters. Gil's career has spanned six decades, and he's had hits in each one. He has won Grammy Awards for "best world music album" for 1998's Quanta Live and for "best contemporary world music album" in 2005 (Eletracústico), and has taken home several Latin Grammys, including three in 2001, 2002, and 2010 for "best Brazilian roots/regional album" and another during the latter year for "best Brazilian popular music album." He has sold tens of millions of recordings.


Tracklist:

1. No te Dejes Desanimar
2. Rasguña las Piedras
3. Cinema Verité
4. Desarma Y Sangra
5. En La Vereda Del Sol


Charly Garcia - Vivo Con Gilberto Gil (1981)
(320 kbps, front cover included)