AnimaMundi

Allen Toussaint's "The Bright Mississippi"

Allen Toussaint's "The Bright Mississippi" album covers a lot of ground. From time out of time to now. In light of that, it's not easy for me to say something meaningful and not inane. What am I hearing here? Everything that I have listened to for the last 50 years or so. It's all in there. Like the turns of the river itself, Toussaint takes you on a fugue-slow-drag-funky-parade-strut ride in and out of the musics that have been created and transformed by the Crescent City. The maestro has produced a work of art that needs listening to, again and again. The bottom resonation is felt in the chords and riffs that are part of the whole of African-Caribbean-American musical story. It's a journey we all take when we listen to and hear what is being expressed musically. I can't do the album justice by trying to describe the circle it encompasses. I can only encourage you to buy the album and listen to an important part of African music via the Caribbean as it entered the grand old port of New Orleans and was transformed into a music for the whole world to feast on. For a more thorough look at the album, go to Offbeat:

Henry selected the songs for The Bright Mississippi with “Tipitina and Me” in mind. “There was a certain kind of beauty,” he says. “It sounded old world, it sounded classical, deeply rhythmic like tango, with New Orleans rhythm but also had a deep blues tonality."

Also reviewed at the NY Times and Times-Picayune.

Download 09 Bright Mississippi

Download 07 Blue Drag

Download 02 Dear Old Southland

 PS This album deserves more than I wrote. I will try to do better. I haven't listened to it enough. As I listen again and again, I realize this again and again.

 

Grand Opening Weekend at The Knickerbocker

The Knickerbocker Cafe in Westerly, RI officially opens this weekend. The faithful restoration of The Knick to its historic past state is now open for all to see, hear and dance to those musicians who make the music. During these uncertain times, it will again be a place for people to forget about all that. It was much the same during the 30's and the WWII years. So it is again now. The Mystic Horns kicked off the weekend last night. Tonight, The Pawcatuck River Valley Allstars comprised of Duke Robillard, Greg Piccolo, Johnny Nicholas, Sugar Ray Norcia, Joel Guzman, Doug James, Carl Querforth, Al Gomez and more. On Sunday night,  the great Delbert McClinton with The Texas Allstars opening. The Knickerbocker is back in the style with which its rich musical history is interwoven. 

The Tom Tom Club Issues a Catechism

I have always liked The Tom Tom Club and xxx-Tina Weymouth. We caught Talking Heads and them at SPAC in the 80's when their summer programming was much more interesting. That was in the "Speaking in Tongues" days. So when I read that McSweeney's had come out with The Tom Tom Club Catechism, I had to change my underwear.

Hiatus

I posted three times in April, an all time low for me. Allergies and outdoor work are the main reasons. It's not like I didn't hear lots of new music, drank some noteworthy wines, enjoyed some exceptional home made meals and discovered things on the Internets that I could have linked too. My ability to read books and longish web content is definitely affected by those microscopic bits of pollen and the detritus from last year. I pour loads of eye drops into my eyes everyday and take benadryl. My vision and neuron synapses suffer. So needless to say, I didn't post since what I would have posted would undoubtedly have been more inane than usual. This and Facebook.

So I will return to my impetus to start blogging in the spring-summer of 2005: New Orleans. That good ole warrior, Ashley Morris, would have appreciated this news about "The Wire", especially since David Simon wanted to speak with him about the city of New Orleans. Yeah mon, maybe the exodus will be stemmed and the TV wizard's wand will bring some of your city's soul into livingrooms around the planet. Maybe, just maybe, the rest of the country will finally realize how much the city has given it. There are so many things El Norte; as tangible as an oyster po' boy and as intangible as rolling a certain way.

Then there is that other word smith at Toulouse Street who continually lambasts my soul with his prose-poetry. He's always riffing on something that gets under your skin like scar tissue. His words rumble around within your head for days and weeks.

Oh, one more thing Allen Toussaint's "The Bright Missippissi". Listen to it a few hundred times.

 

"The portion we see of human beings is very small: their forms and faces, voices and words, their ages and race perhaps; beyond these, like an immense dark continent of which their obvious self is but a jetting headland, lies all that has made them--generations vanishing into the barbarous night; accidents and impacts not only on themselves but upon their forebears; the cry of the conqueror, the sighing of slaves. Even the chemical variation of substances--airs, food and waters--are all gathered to that point of light which is the person we know. He himself is unable to communicate, forced to use fluid words as if they were solid, and --if Anglo-Saxon and well brought up--is anyway not expected to wish to communicate at all. And when two human beings meet even in the most simple intercourse, it is not the tiny visible substances, but the immense invisibles that come together. It is these that must determine the liking or disliking over which we have so little control."

Freya Stark

The Knickerbocker Is Back!

  Knick logo: Sally Sorensen

Here's a very good piece about The Knickerbocker Cafe in The New London (CT) Day. I picked up on the sound quality when at The Knick a few weeks back. Not only was the music good, but the volume and loudness were right for the room's acoustics. Very important for the musicians and the ears out in the crowd. The sound system has been tailored to the room. Not too much and not too little. Just right.

The Knickerbocker Cafe Westerly, RI

The Knickerbocker Cafe in Westerly, RI is getting some well deserved props. The music and dancing lovin' people gotta' turn out to make it happen.

New video of Johnny Nicholas and Greg Piccolo at opening night at The Knickerbocker Cafe.

Happy Mardi Gras !! WWOZ New Orleans, HOTG, RFO-Gwada & Matnik + "If Ever I Cease To Love"

It's Mardi Gras in New Orleans! Remember those who have passed over and those who are displaced.

RIP Antoinette K-Doe who passed early on Mardi Gras Day 2009.

WWOZ streams

 

The Home of the Groove has some poppin' Mardi Gras music that is off da' hook. 

Then there are the Lesser Antilles in size, but not in groove quotient. The other stations that we like at Carnaval time are RFO-Guadeloupe and Martinique. No news or commercials, just music non-stop.

 

For those searching for what to sing after Rex, here are a few verses:

 

IF EVER I CEASE TO LOVE

Verse 1:
In a house, in a square, in a quadrant,
In a street, in a lane, in a road.
Turn to the left, on the right hand,
you see my true love's abode.
I go there a courting,
and cooing to my love like a dove,
And swearing on my bend-ed knee
If ever I cease to love,
May sheepsheads grow on apple trees,
If ever I cease to love.

Chorus 1:
If ever I cease to love,
If ever I cease to love
May the moon be turned to green cream cheese,
If ever I cease to love

Verse 2:
She can sing, she can play on the piano,
She can jump, she can dance, she can run.

For she's a wonderful girlie,
She's all of them rolled into one.
I adore her beauty, she's like an angel dropped from above

May the fish get legs, and the cows lay eggs,

If ever I cease to love,

Chorus 2

If I ever cease to love,

If I ever cease to love,

May we all turn into cats and dogs,

If I ever cease to love

 

If Ever I Cease to Love The Knickerbocker Cafe

Now if I were a self-serving ego-maniac obssessed with my blog stats, I would post with a title like the above. Those who know me know that I am that and much more. Music is the penultimate connector for me and always will be. The Knickerbocker to New Orleans. The dots are all connected. Let the good times roll.

The Knickerbocker Cafe

If you are looking for The Knickerbocker's Scrapbook, it's now called "News".

15+ Most Influential, Formative, Favorite Albums

  This is just as impossible as one's favorite 15 songs and can also change daily or semi-weekly.

1. John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman

smoothly romantic without being sappy; Johnny Hartman’s vocals mesh with Coltrane’s tenor like two lovers talking to each other and to you at the same time. 

2. Graceland -- Paul Simon

The South African mbaqanga rhythms are what this album is all about. So new yet so old. Syncopated 4/4 time. Paul Simon’s lyrics are a good juxtaposition to what’s going on in the vocals and percussion.

3. Fess -- The Professor Longhair Anthology

It’s all here with The Professor at the keys. There is no one like him nor will there ever be.

4. Sunshine Superman & Mellow Yellow - Donovan

No apologies. He was never England's answer to Dylan. Dylan never wrote melodies like this or jazz.h Then again Donovan never wrote anything like "Visions of Johanna." Inseparable essential psychedelically drenched hymns from the English mystic-poet.

5. Getz/Gilberto

Timeless soothing boss nova. Getz got all the recognition and money. He had all the personality problems too.

6. Further Definitions - Benny Carter

Benny Carter, Coleman Hawkins, Phil Woods and Charlie Rouse together. Enlightened driving playing and arrangements. “Body and Soul” is another thing altogether.

7. Blonde on Blonde - Bob Dylan

Pure mercury

8. Brincadeira Tem Hora - Paulo Flores

African music like I thought it might sound. Percussive and melodic.

9. Matebis - Malavoi

The jewel in the crown of this memorable string orchestra from Martinique with creme-de-la-creme guests.

10. Zambouya - Marie Jose Alie

Extremely talented Martiniquan singer with range, chops and feeling. An album that one never tires of. Reeking with nostalgia, but never moribund. Some tracks cook like nothing else.

11. The Complete Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong

The textbook on jazz duet singing

12. The Essential Jimmy Rushing

Mr. 5 x 5 says it all, wall to wall. He may have been cheap, but not here.

13. Zouk Attack

Rounder compilation by Gene Scaramuzzo

Probably the best introduction to Zouk and Cadence from Guadeloupe and Martinique

14. April In Paris - Count Basie

The Count and his band swingin’ with songs like “Corner Pocket” that just get better with each listening.

15. …and His Mother Called Him Bill - Duke Ellington

Maybe because of the homage to the great Billy Strayhorn and the emotion with which Johnny Hodges and the Duke play here.

16. Miss Perfumado - Cesaria Evora

“Saudade” is one of the most haunting enchanting songs that I have ever heard. When we saw her live, she appeared with an enormous band that blew the lid off The Egg. The crowd seemed to expect all acoustic morna. They were wrong.

17. La Vi Ya Bel - Tabou Combo / NY Superstars

Haiti’s first super group and best ambassadors. They can burn the roof off of any club. One of the loudest bands that I have ever heard.

18. Time Out - Dave Brubeck

One of the first jazz album's that I listebed to over and over.

19. Disko Partizani - Shantel

Eastern European brass bands cum reggae, clubbyness et al. It hits me rolling in the shoulders more than the hips. Irresistably hot.

20. Ballads - John Coltrane 

Coltrane could caress a ballad from the soul.