Junior se laaste is Senior stuff

So sit ek en tob oor die toekoms en waar my volgende geldjie vandaan gaan kom ... al timmerend op die keyboard ... in die agtergrond speel DSTV se blues channel ... allerhande lekker blues speel ... oud en nuut ... alles heel luisterbaar ... maar toe speel daar iets wat ek nie sommer net in die agtergrond kan laat verbyglip nie. Om krag te spaar speel ek die kanaal deur die amp sonder om die tv aan te skakel, so ek weet nie wat speel (behalwe as ek dit herken) tensy ek die tv aanskakel nie. Daarvoor lê die remote handig, want sulke 'gems' duik op en dan wil mens dadelik weet wat dit is wat speel. Dis dan juis hoe ek JJ Grey & Mofro 'ontdek' het. Anyway ... aan mettie tv en daar sien ek toe ... dis Junior Wells mette song van sy album 'Come On In This House'. Ek maak dadelik my 'Wishlist.txt' file oop ... hy lê altyd gereed op my desktop vir sulke eventualities ... :) Die album word in die lysie ingedruk vir wanneer ek weer musiek soek. Later die dag voel ek effe down en besluit om terapie te kry ... dadelik is ek oppie web aanie soek en daar vind ek toe Junior Wells se 'Come On In This House'. Voor ek sommer die album aanskaf kyk ek eers rond vir meer inligting omtrent dit. Ek ken mos vir Junior Wells ... het hom saam met Buddy Guy ... sy ou buddy ... hehehe. Ek het hom ook op dvd waar hy sy manewales uithaal ... dit was juis sy ding ... hy kon operate ... soms het mens die musiek en musicianship gemis oor al die manewales ... hy was 'n showman. So sien ek toe dat hierdie album gereken word as dieselfde gehalte as sy hoog-aangeskrewe 'Hoodoo Man Blues' wat sy eerste album was (1965). Ek sien toe ook dat dit (tragies) sy laaste album was wat hy opgeneem het, alhoewel daar ander releases daarna was. Hy was, sover ek kon uitvind, onbewus van sy siekte terwyl hy die album opgeneem het. Binne jaar daarna is hy diagnoseer met kanker en kort daarna het hy 'n hartaanval gekry terwyl hy onder behandeling was. Dit het met hom in 'n koma geëindig waaruit hy nooit gekom het nie. Hy is oorlede op 15 Januarie 1998. Ek wil graag dink hy moes dalk 'n voorgevoel gehad het. Daarom dat hy meer erns getoon het met hierdie album en mette 'n juweel van 'n tradisionele blues album vorendag gekom het ... vir oulaas. Sy weapon of choice was die blues-harp. My vorige favourite 'go-to' blues album is ook deur 'n blues-harp blaser gemaak wat ook prematurely (meer nog as Junior) dood is, naamlik Paul Butterfield. Op Junior se laaste album word hy ondersteun deur 'n hele paar jong, maar top-klas musikante soos Derek Trucks, Corey Harris, Tab Benoit, Alvin Youngblood Hart ens. Die album wen ook die W.C. Handy toekenning vir Tradisionele Blues in 1997. Anyway ... na ek toe so bietjie meer oor die album lees, laat ek hom dadelik kom via die eter ... hy lyk of hy hier by my hoort besluit ek. En vanaand luister ek toe die eerste keer behoorlik na daai album ... en hier is ek nou besig om julle van hom te vertel. 'Cos why? 'Cos jy moet hom uitcheck as jy van goeie trad-blues hou. Dis bleddie mooi man ... sommer dyyyyyydelike blues hierdie! Luister mooi na die eerste track en hoor hoe ongelooflik mooi eenvoud kan klink. Die bass en dromme doen absoluut niks meer as die minimum nie ... hulle weier om flambojant te wees ... selfs die kitaar waag net nou en dan 'n noot wat jy as apart vannie groove kan hoor ... hulle trap mekaar amper dood in daai groove ... beautifully simple! Kry hom maar ... satisfaction guaranteed ... Junior se laaste album het hom vanne clown na 'n SENIOR blues-man promote in my boek ... Lees hier oor die album.

Jinx

oppisolo
'n deel daarvan is nog 'n bietjie hippie
'n deel daarvan het ek verloor in Mississippi
'n deel daarvan sukkel-sukkel met die grootword
'n deel daarvan gaan nog eendag alles uitsort
'n deel daarvan is half jammer oor alles
'n deel daarvan glo in dele van die Bybel
'n deel daarvan is 'n band oppisolo

Ek het so wyle gelede vir myself 'n "van Pa aan Pa" bestel.
Ja hier op die platteland bestel ons nog meeste van ons
"nice to haves". Gister toe ek gou vir moeder 'n persentjie
moes soek,  haal ek toe myne af:

Een van die lekkerste shows wat ek ooit bygewoon het,
seker omdat ek half onseker was oor die kombinasie,
was Vuur en Vlam.

Ek ondek vandag hierdie "Agter die Skerms" opname:

 



'n Man wat Kan



Ballade van die Dronkparty



Die aeroplane se vlerk

Griekse Juwele

Ek het 'n ou vriend wat nie by 'n begrafplaas of grafsteen langs die pad verby ry nie! Dan kom hy terug en vertel stories omtrent die graf die omgewing en sy mens.
Lekker stories, hartseer maar menswees stories.
Die graf hierbo lê in Heraklion op die eiland Kreta.
Die grafskrif lees so:

"Den elpizo tipota. Den fovumai tipota. Eimai eleftheros."
           I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.

Nikos Kazantzakis is seker die belangrikse Griekse skrywer van die 20e eeu.
Ek het sopas 'n wonderlike boek van hom "Report to Greco" gelees.
Kazantzakis het eers bekend geword en roem verwerf nadat die film "Zorba the Greek" van sy soortgenoemde boek gemaak was. Report to Greco gaan aan met die lewe van Zorba maar is ook gebaseer op sy eie lewe, gewaarwordinge en siening van die lewe.

Nog 'n paar Nikos waarhede: 

 A person needs a little madness,
or else they never dare cut the rope and be free.

Beauty is merciless.
You do not look at it, it looks at you and does not forgive.

There is only one woman in the world.
 One woman, with many faces.


 Since we cannot change reality,
 let us change the eyes which see reality.

"Salvatores Dei"
We come from a dark abyss,
we end in a dark abyss,
and we call the luminous interval life.


Hierdie video is 'n kort biografie met 'n paar aanhalings uit Report to Greco:

Eienaardig was die sangeres Nana Mouskouri ook nie baie bekroond en gewild in Griekeland nie. Sy moes ook soos Kazantzakis eers populêr word oorsee voordat sy daar erkenning gekry het.

Nana Mouskouri Live at Herod Atticus 1984
music Manos Hadjidakis verse: Nikos Gatsos

(Tora pou pas stin xenitia )
Now that you're going to a foreign country,
i'll be a bird of the south wind, to meet you soon,
so i can bring you the cross that you asked me to find for you,
and to bring you a ring.



 



Because

Al my mede melomaan vriende weet ek is byna obsessief 'n Leonard Cohen bewonderaar.
Ek het met die jare al die moontlike albums van die ou lewende legende aangeskaf. Daar was egter heelwat "Bests of en More Best off" versamelde werke wat ek maar vermy het omdat dit bloot net dupliseering van vorige werke was. Ek lees egter gister op een van die Leonard Cohen forums 'n debat oor 'n snit op die "More Best of Leonard Cohen " album.

Op hierdie 1997 versameling is daar as laaste snit 'n heel onbekende snit opgelaai: 13."The Great Event"

It's going to happen very soon.
The great event which will end the horror.
Which will end the sorrow.
Next Tuesday, when the sun goes down,
I will play the Moonlight Sonata backwards.
This will reverse the effects of the world's mad plunge into suffering,
for the last 200 million years.
What a lovely night that would be.
What a sigh of relief,
as the senile robins become bright red again,
and the retired nightingales, pick up their dusty tails,
and assert the majesty of creation!

Written by Leonard Cohen
Produced by Steve Lindsey
Vocals by Leonard Cohen and Victoria
Keyboard Instrumental Performed by: by Jim Cox
Programming and Editing: Iki Levi
Recorded and Mixed by Gabe Veltri

Die frase "I will play the Moonlight Sonata backwards" het my gedagtes geprikkel en het ek toe meer gaan oplees hieroor.
Hier is die snit:


Eers gaan luister ek toe weer na die Moonlight Sonata -
mense bykans 31 miljoen "views".
Daar is nog hoop vir die mensdom!




Op 'n middag in 1969 tydens die atteljeeopnames van die album Abbey Road  sit Yoko Ono op die klavier en speel.
Onder andere speel sy toe ook die  Moonlight Sonata.
John Lennon, die musikale genie wat hy is, vra haar toe om asseblief weer 'n keer die sonate te speel - maar dié keer agteruit?
Dié klink toe min of meer so:


Lennon het daarop die lied "Because" geskryf, gebaseer op die akkoorde van Beethoven se Moonlight Sonate. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, en George Harrison harmoniseer saam:



Op die album Anthology 3 verskyn die lied weer maar die keer in 'n a capella vorm:



In hierdie video gebruik die samesteller beelde van Kazuo Ohno.



Hierdie legendariese Japanese dans guru en spesialis van die Japanese dansvorm "Butoh" is eers verlede jaar op 104 oorlede.

Kazuo se lewensverhaal kan hier gelees word.

Calvin Russell

Die Man

Sy Geskiedenis

Calvin Russell is the real deal, an authentic Texas-born cowboy whose face is a trail of hard-earned lines, proof of the rough mileage he's put on his body since his birth in 1948 in Austin. For someone who likes Texas and Russell's brand of country music, the act of researching his life and misadventures could be fun if it weren't for one thing: all the juicy stuff -- including Russell's stint in jail -- that's been printed about the singing American cowboy is in French. Sometimes it's in another European language. Far less often will you find any significant write-ups in the language of his birthplace, and that's because Russell found his greatest success, professionally and personally, far from home. He is a business owner; the proprietor of a Swiss nightclub. His wife is Swiss.

 A good percentage of his albums were recorded in Europe.

The singer/songwriter was one of nine children born to his working-class parents, Red and Daisy. The family lived on an unpaved road, not far from the town's wrecking yard. His mom was a waitress in the same little café where his dad did the cooking. Calvin Russell, their sixth child, spent his youth putting together hot-rod cars. Before he turned 13, he'd discovered the guitar. Within a year, Russell was playing with an outfit called the Cavemen. A wild time during his teens brought him to the attention of local authorities, who sent him to juvenile detention and, later, prison. At one point in the mid-'80s, he did time in a Mexican jail, where he spent his nights on a cold concrete floor. Upon his release, he headed back to his hometown, where his condition didn't improve much. He made his bed outdoors, in the small area beneath a house, in the dirt. Russell took to the open road on a motorcycle and began to write his songs in the Texas hill country.

By 1985, he had a single to his credit. Thanks to a chance meeting with record company executive Patrick Mathe four years later at Austin's Continental Club, Russell landed a contract with the French company that would release many of his albums, New Rose Records. Russell later went on to sign with Sony after New Rose Records folded. New Rose's release of Russell's A Crack in Time album in 1990 caused a stir for the artist, and he started picking up quite a bit of attention. He went on to play festivals in Europe alongside such artists as the Kinks and Little Village. Three more albums followed from New Rose. Le Voyageur is a recording of live shows performed by Russell in such French cities as Rennes and Paris. When the record company was sinking and its assets frozen in bankruptcy proceedings, Russell was very close to having his career tied up in the company's legal woes. Dick Rivers, who had a career decades earlier in pop, rescued Russell when he purchased the singer/songwriter's contract. Soon, Sony found Russell and stepped into the picture.

Sy Musiek

Kry hierdie album hier