Photo by Romina Hendlin. Used with permission.

As Carl Orff wrote and arranged it, playing “O Fortuna” requires an entire orchestra, with five tympanies and two choirs. Jorge Glem gets there with just four strings. Glem works as a sort of ambassador for the Venezuelan cuatro, and as he demonstrated live Tuesday night, Sept. 5 at Joe’s Pub in Manhattan, he’s also working as its Jimi Hendrix.

Jorge Glem has already won a Latin Grammy, but his goal is to raise the profile of his chosen instrument, through playing shows like this that showcase the musical potential of the cuatro, and also in a documentary. Equal parts affable and virtuosic, Glem is about as ideal a spokesman that an instrument could hope for.

In addition to widely used guitars and mandolins, there is a host of small guitar relatives unique to Latin American music: the Cuban tres, the cavaquinho in Brazil, the charango from the Andes. There are even Puerto Rican and Cuban varieties of the cuatro.

Jorge Glem 4CuatroMusic. Used with permission.

Glem started out, like many children, with dreams of being a drummer but only his mother’s pots and pans to practice on. As he told the Joe’s Pub audience, his mother was not amused and, in order to spare her cookware any more percussion, handed her son the instrument that Glem said nearly all Venezuelan homes have on the wall: the cuatro.

To look at it, the Venuzuelan cuatro is pretty similar to a ukulele, and it’s traditionally used as accompaniment for singers. But to hear Glem play it is something altogether different. After explaining how the cuatro was at first a substitute for drums, Glem began palm muting his cuatro, moving his hand from up by the nut to down by the bridge, producing two distinct tones.

“This, I noticed,” he said through an interpreter, “was just like the two notes of the congas.”

He began patting out a rhythm. “Cuban,” he called out and then changed. “Dominican merengue….with güiro!” He began hitting the strings with the side of his fingernail, making the shuffling sound that normally requires an another percussionist, or at the very least another instrument. The audience was already going nuts before Glem slipped into the samba beat, complete with that two-note agogo part.

Sam Reider and Jorge Glem. Used with permission.

The evening was an extraordinary display of the instrument and the musician’s range. With American accordionist Sam Reider, Glem played a fusion of American bluegrass and Venezuelan folk and then very briefly a sort of free jazz, percussion-on-your-instrument breakdown with Reider, both of them grinning.

Legendary clarinetist Paquito D’Rivera came out to play the Dizzy Gillespie jazz standard “A Night in Tunisia,” and talk about how when he first heard of this cuatro player Glem, D’Rivera assumed they were just talking about Glenn Miller on the trombone. D’Rivera also made the most political statement that night from the stage, saying he has a great love for the Venezuelan people, perhaps now more than ever. Though the country is violently divided between Chavistas and antigovernment opposition, D’Rivera assured the people gathered in Joe’s Pub: “You will win!”

Paquito D’Rivera and Jorge Glem. Used with permission.

Glem is now in New York full time and taking advantage of it. “I feel like New York is a city that is open to listening to new sounds and the public likes to listen to new mixtures of sound,” he said in an interview backstage before the show. “There is an incredible amount of musicians I look up to in the city who are all really close.”

The rapport among musicians on stage was obvious and, even though it’s not the best-known instrument in the world, the cuatro fit right in there too. Of course, in the hands of a master, anything sounds good.

Afrobeat has a much-traveled history. With all the shuttling of ingredients across the pond between Africa and the United States, it could have earned enough frequent flyer miles to go many times around the world–first class. Which in many ways it really has.

It was of course Fela Ransome Anikulapo Kuti who was the instigator and predominant driving force of Afrobeat. In the ’60s he had a band, Koola Lobitos, coming out of Nigeria to play in England and the United States. Not a lot of Afrobeat in it in those days–mostly a blend of highlife, fuji and Yoruba–but in Los Angeles he found himself marooned and in trouble with the immigration authorities. During this stay he immersed himself in the sounds of jazz and funk and the politics of Black Power. It turned his head around and a music and culture that had its roots in Africa was harnessed and taken back to Africa. The rest is history.

The Chicago Afrobeat Project is the epitome of results of the subsequent journeys Afrobeat has made, long surviving its creator. This is due partly to the interaction with aficionados and new players all over the world, but most especially in America. Like so many progenitors, CAbP adds its own unique flavors but never lets go of the primal elements that keeps the style so popular.

With their album What Goes Up, CAbP has the mightiest bedrock of all–the original drummer for Fela and a key sound ingredient in Afrobeat: Tony Allen. Tony came on board for some live events and to record this album as part of his quest to share and pass on his knowledge to the next generation. More FF miles. His style is unmistakable, a meld of jazz, funk, Nigeria, New Orleans second line and military bedazzle. He improvises and propels at the same time like no other and provides a rock-steady anchor to the proceedings throughout.

So what do the other band members bring to the table? Well, it’s a 21st century blend of current and past r&b, jazz-funk and a reverence for many of the Nigerian traditions inherent in Afrobeat. And a prerequisite political and philosophical  awareness that has never been far from its heart. The arrangements go well past the usual slavish reconstituting of Fela’s sound. There are real song structures a wide instrumental palette and, rather than a straight ahead juggernaut of horns and beats, there is color, light and shade and a realization that there is power in quiet as well as fury. Not to say the groove and the funk ever let off–they don’t–but there is really listenable and inventive music here, not just dance beats. Echoes of Bernie Worrell’s P Funk keyboards,  Earth Wind and Fire pyrotechnics, hip-hop and the stretched-out motifs used by late-period Miles Davis are all in play. Which is as it should be, given Afrobeat was born of similar ingredients over 45 years ago.

Floating over top of all this are a stellar crew of vocalists,  JC Brooks, Kiara Lanier, Legit (Chance the Rapper), Akenya (Noname, Chance the Rapper), Ugochi Nwaogwugwu, Oranmiyan , and Rico Sisney/Maggie Vagle (Sidewalk Chalk).

I’d like to single out two female singers in particular: first Ugochi Nwaogwugwu, born in Chicago of Nigerian parents (honorary FF miles) who has her own release, Afro Soul Effect. Her fluid vocals grace  “I No Know,” a mid-tempo swinger.  Kiara Lanier emits a feel similar to Ruth Tafebe on “No Bad News,” a subtly driving quest for “truth.” There are also a couple of rappers present and a hip-hop feel percolates through in “Marker 48” and the opener, “Beehive,” with its jazzy phrasing expanding the Afrobeat rhythm into interesting territories.

What Goes Up ends up as a very interesting and effective expression of Afrobeat but thought from outside the box. Yes, there’s Tony Allen–still in top form–and the insistent heavyweight horns and the politics that are  Afrobeat prerequisites. There is also a great fluidity and musicality that is theirs and theirs alone, and the result is a supremely listenable, honorable statement that brings Fela’s political protest home to Chicago in an extremely pertinent way for the world we live in.

320 kbps | 122 MB | LINKS

Micah P. Hinson’s new album “Presents The Holy Strangers” is described by the artist as being a “modern folk opera.” Telling the story of a war time family, going from birth to love, to marriage and children, to war and betrayal, murder to suicide – spanning all of the strange and glorious places life can lead. We follow their story, we see their decisions, we see their faults and their beauty. We live with them, we die with them.

Two years in the making, Micah wrote and recorded The Holy Strangers in Denison, Texas, incorporating ancient reel to reels, analogue keyboards, old Tascam and Yamaha desks. The recording only entered the digital realm once pre-mastering took place.
Split across two pieces of vinyl, the 14 tracks which make up The Holy Strangers are at times sparse and haunting; at other times luscious, maybe even euphoric. From the Johnny Cash-style country single “Lover’s Lane,” to the album’s broad, spoken-word centrepiece “Micah Book One”, The Holy Strangers covers a lot of ground over the course of its hour long running time, appealing to both long-time fans and new ones alike.

320 kbps | 112 MB | LINKS

New studio album Folk Hotel showcases 13 new Russell originals plus, as one of two bonus tracks, Bob Dylan’s “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues,” a duet with Joe Ely. Augie Meyers and Eliza Gilkyson also make guest appearances on the album, which was recorded at Congress House studio in Austin, Texas.

Tracklist:
01. Up in the Old Hotel 04:20
02. Leaving El Paso 03:35
03. I’ll Never Leave These Old Horses 04:25
04. The Sparrow of Swansea (For Dylan Thomas) 03:19
05. All on a Belfast Morning 06:37
06. Rise Again, Handsome Johnny 05:13
07. Harlan Clancy 05:33
08. The Last Time I Saw Hank 04:39
09. The Light Beyond the Coyote Fence 04:27
10. The Dram House Down in Gutter Lane 03:57
11. The Day They Dredged the Liffey / The Banks of Montauk 04:35
12. The Rooftops of Copenhagen 04:15

320 kbps | 135 MB | LINKS

SOUTHERN BLOOD serves as a remarkable final testament from an artist whose contributions have truly shaped rock & roll throughout the past four decades. Allman’s first all-new recording since 2011’s GRAMMY® Award-nominated solo landmark, LOW COUNTRY BLUES, the album is among the most uniquely personal of the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer’s career, an emotionally expansive collection of songs written by friends and favorite artists including Jackson Browne, Willie Dixon, Jerry Garcia & Robert Hunter, Lowell George and Spooner Oldham & Dan Penn, meant to serve as a salutary farewell to his legion of devoted fans and admirers. Allman collaborated on his closing project with manager and dear friend Michael Lehman and GRAMMY® Award-winning producer Don Was, a longtime acquaintance and staunch supporter committed to helping the rock icon actualize his very specific aspirations.
“As his producer, I was dedicated to helping Gregg crystallize his vision for the record and to help make sure that this vision made it to the tape,” says Was. “He was a musical hero of mine and, in later years, had become a good friend. The gravitas of this particular situation was not lost on me. Gregg was a sweet, humble man with a good heart and good intentions and it was a great honor to help him put his musical affairs in order and say a proper farewell.”
Allman, well aware his time was short, approached the project with an unambiguously realistic agenda. High atop his list of goals was to capture the sound of the ultimate Gregg Allman Band in full flight, considering them the tightest knit combo of all the line-ups that had backed him over his 40+ year solo career. Despite his ongoing health issues, the Gregg Allman Band had picked up right where the Allman Brothers Band left off in 2015, spending nearly two years on the road with tour highlights including the now-annual Allman-curated Laid Back Festival. 2015’s two disc CD/DVD set, BACK TO MACON GA, immortalized Allman and his eight-member band’s floor-shaking live power but their leader was determined to see what the group could do within the confines of the studio.
“Gregg was very excited to be in the studio,” says Lehman. “He was especially thrilled to be recording this studio album with his solo band – he was so proud of them and loved the sound that they produced together. Gregg felt close to every single one of them. The Gregg Allman Band was like a family or a well oiled machine, always knowing what the other band members were thinking and doing.”
“The Gregg Allman Band enabled him to realize a sound that he’d been hearing in his head for decades but was previously unable to achieve. We talked a lot about his first solo LP, LAID BACK – what would that type of album sound like in the modern era played by these cats and fronted by an older and wiser Gregg Allman?”
A further key to Allman’s vision for SOUTHERN BLOOD was his decision to record at the world-renowned FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, AL. Alongside its own fabled history, the legendary studio occupied a momentous place in Allman’s personal back pages.
“A constant discussion during all of my nearly 15 years working with Gregg was his desire to return to Muscle Shoals,” Lehman says. “He always would talk about how he needed to get back to FAME Studios to bring him full circle.”
“Muscle Shoals is hallowed musical ground,” says Was. “FAME was the place where Gregg’s brother Duane first started making waves in the music world and where the earliest seeds of The Allman Brothers Band were sown in a back room during their first, seminal rehearsals. Duane’s presence is still ubiquitous in that building. Recording there was Gregg’s way of making his spirit a part of this album, in the same way that his spirit continued to be part of Gregg’s life.”
Brother Duane’s presence courses through SOUTHERN BLOOD, from Jackson Browne’s “Song For Adam” – the final verse of which Was says reminded Gregg of his older brother’s premature passing – to the funk-fried “Blind Bats and Swamp Rats,” originally found on the Duane-produced TON-TON MACOUTE!, a lost classic from left-handed blues guitarist Johnny Jenkins. Allman, Was, and Lehman spent significant time plotting out SOUTHERN BLOOD, carefully selecting material that would capture the moment and simultaneously serve as a synopsis of an undeniably extraordinary life. Songs like Bob Dylan’s haunting “Going, Going Gone” and Tim Buckley’s immortal “Once I Was” allowed Allman a chance to look back over his time on Earth while also pondering the journey that lay ahead.
“Gregg, Don and I listened to a lot of material,” Lehman says. “We went back and forth with each other to ultimately come up with songs that Gregg felt reflected his mood, where he was presently in life both on a personal level and professional level, as well as what would be on his fans’ minds later on.”
Allman was of course a gifted and evocative tunesmith in his own right, the award-winning author of such modern standards as “Midnight Rider,” “It’s Not My Cross To Bear,” “Dreams,” and “Whipping Post.” SOUTHERN BLOOD is highlighted by one of the most candid tracks of his long songwriting career, “My Only True Friend,” co-written with Gregg Allman Band guitarist/musical director Scott Sharrard.
“‘My Only True Friend’ was Gregg’s attempt to contextualize the course of his life,” says Was. “The man that his fans saw performing onstage was the essential Gregg Allman – he was whole and truly satisfied when he was up there playing music. The trials and troubles he faced in life were mostly the result of not knowing what to do with himself in between shows. In this song, he’s addressing a woman and explaining that, although he loves her and doesn’t want to face living his life alone, being away on the road and performing every night is his lifeblood. If you understand this about Gregg Allman, every other aspect of his life makes complete sense.”

Tracks:

1. My Only True Friend
2. Once I Was
3. Going Going Gone
4. Black Muddy River
5. I Love the Life I Live
6. Willin’
7. Blind Bats and Swamp Rats
8. Out of Left Field
9. Love Like Kerosene
10. Song For Adam (feat. Jackson Browne)
11. I Love The Life I Live (LIVE From The Clay Center, Charleston, West Virginia, May 6, 2016)
12. Love Like Kerosene (LIVE From The Tower Theatre, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 1, 2016)

Тема на форуме

Тема на форуме

Tim Berne’s Snakeoil
Incidentals
(ECM, 2017)
more details

Reggae group Morgan Heritage, appearing Fri., Sept. 8 at BB King Blues Club in New York, was featured on the cover of The Beat in 2001. Exemplifying Rastafarian roots and culture, the band is a family affair comprised of five siblings, all children of the veteran reggae star Denroy Morgan. Their star began to rise on the reggae scene in the mid-‘90s, and at the time of this article they had six albums under their belts and were touring extensively. To date, they have a total of 13 albums out, including their most recent, Avrakedabra, reviewed here by Afropop’s Christopher Stoddard.

The Morgan Heritage story is here told by Beat writer Tom Orr, who became an instant fan of the group while seeing them perform at the 2000 Bob Marley Day festival in Los Angeles.

READ OR DOWNLOAD PDF: Beat20#5MorganHeritage

ABOUT “BEST OF THE BEAT ON AFROPOP” The Beat Goes On!

320 kbps | 127 MB | LINKS

Tracklist:

01. Bleeding Roses 05:50
02. When You Cry 05:56
03. Love in My Blood 03:59
04. Slow Dream 04:21
05. Hungry Sally 06:47
06. German Fraulein 04:25
07. Betcha Can’t Play 01:35
08. Clumsy Beautiful World 03:44
09. Devil’s in Love 04:07
10. Woke Up Blind 10:26
11. Pieces of Time 05:14
12. Crucified 04:55

Micah P. Hinson
Presents The Holy Strangers
(Full Time Hobby, 2017)
more details

Тема на форуме

Тема на форуме

Тема на форуме

Тема на форуме

Тема на форуме

Тема на форуме

Тема на форуме