My musical tastes have always bordered on eclectic, but, surprise, surprise, in recent years those tastes have degenerated to downright WEIRD. I want to thank Johnny Clegg, John Lurie and the Lounge Lizards (THANK YOU Jim Jarmusch, the greatest movie director in history), the Gypsy Kings, the French in general, Tom Waits, Brad Kava, and Stimela (including Hugh Masakela) for this evolution.
It all started while living in Europe when the South African Johnny Clegg (the White Zulu) and the Gypsy Kings (only one of them is literate) made the whole continent crazy. It was breakthrough music, completely different from anything I had heard. When I made my annual pilgrimage to North America, I was surprised that nobody knew about either group. They came along a few years later.
Anyway, at about the same time in the mid 80s along came Jarmusch and his strange movies and music. Then came the French, who have exquisite taste in everything cultural and music is no exception. They have some excellent musicians with African roots - Youssou N'Dour, Ali Farka Toure from Mali, who recently died. Some Arab-French are very cool as well - Patrick Bruel, who is really Patrick Benguigui is a great singer. I picked up on most of this stuff from movie soundtracks and offbeat record stores.
Then one of my friends went on a trip to South Africa, where a lot of cool music was only available under the table and came back with a whole cassette full of Stimela. Blew me away the first time I heard it.
The stuff I like most is sort of African Blood Sweat and Tears or Chicago style - a mixture of Jazz and Rock.
In recent years I have googled movie soundtracks with interesting tunes on them from the Independent Film Channel and Sundance and tracked them down, buying CDs and checking them out. I dig around on movie message boards pleading with other lunatics to help me decipher the artist and title from suchandsuch that I saw in some offbeat movie, and nearly always someone rescues me from endless frustration.
Lastly, this year I discovered LinkTV on my satellite dish. It is sort of like PBS on steroids, full of interesting programs international in scope. One program that I found that runs weekly is called World Music. Another is simply entitled Music Videos. Very impressive. LinkTV runs the whole gamut, stuff from the four corners of the world. I had no idea that music in Uzbekistan was so advanced, did you? So, it's opened up a whole new world.
I can't understand a word of most of the lyrics, but beauty has a language all it's own.
So that's where all this crap comes from, hope you enjoy it.
Papa Wemba "Yolele"
Before we get to the video, let's check out this guy's colorful background: He was born in 1949 in the Congo, which was then Zaire, which is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, which it isn't. He is an absolute clothes horse - check out the various garb on this video. He lives in Paris. Check out the two BABES on this video. HOLY COW they are HOT.
and here is a doozy called Nwahulwana by Wazimbo. This guy is the top stud singer in Mozambique.
And here is a brilliant Mexican band called Pistolera, with a song about the idiot asshole Minutement called Cazador (Hunter). They are very talented, it has a great folky slant to it but it really rocks. They are nearly all babes, pretty cute too.
This is not international, but Tom Waits is one of my all-time favorites. He is in all of Jarmusch's movies. Tom Traubert's Blues is this one, from 1977!
This one isn't international either, but it's cool. Chris Hicks Band, "The Blues Have Got me Down"
Here's another bluesy one from Camila called Todo Cambio (Everything Changes, this band is also from Mexico
Back to Africa for Angelique Kidjo from Benin, called Wombo Lombo
Here's one from Georgia (not our Georgia, the one the Russians are trying to steal) from a band called the Shin. THIS IS AMAZING! It's called "The Epic Waltz of Mr. QQ"
And here is a French-Canadian singer with an unforgettable voice: Daniel Lavoie. Ils s'aiment (They Love Each Other). It's like 25 years old but still awesome.
Here is Ismael Lo, the Bob Dylan of Senegal with "L'amour a tous les droits" (Love has every right)
Here is the version from Brokeback Mountain:
OK what the heck, here is another from Ismael Lo, much more Senegalese, very beautiful, entitled Dabah.
And here, to close this episode is a DOOZY from Johnny Clegg (the white Zulu from South Africa) and his band Savuka.
ENJOY!
MORE CRAP TO COME, PROMISE !
