Bold As Love

LISTENING POST: Pascal Toussaint -- "Je Suis Malade"

When somebody puts it on smash, you just gotta give it up.  So, I'm giving it up for Pascal Toussaint.  He's unusual in that he's a male soprano.  Originally from the French West Indies, Pascal was born with a physical anomaly in which his voice did not change into an adult voice.

According to his site, he sings across the gamut of jazz, American and French stands, rock, gospel, opera, songs in classical Arabic, German ballads, Brazilian.  The list goes on.

For those of you in the Bay, you might've checked him out in his US debut at Yoshi's SF this past Sunday.

More info on Pascal here. (via Bill Bragin)

John Mayer apology video

Great to see The Smyrk's Doron Flake in this comedic skit.  Jambo, indeed!

Also via TheRoot.com.

Additional link:

• Listening Post: The Smyrk -- "Whenever You Call"

REVIEW: Nneka -- "Concrete Jungle" (Epic)

I got a chance to see Nigerian-German singer Nneka (neck-a) at SOB’s earlier this month.  She was cool.

That is, I like what I saw, but I wasn’t blown away.  She’s good, not great.  The band is competent. Since then, though, I’ve been wondering why I can’t muster more excitement about this album and this artist.

I did learn something, though.  I commented to writer Siddartha Mitter, who wrote a strong profile on Nneka for The Boston Globe, that I found it surprising that a Nigerian artist would be leaning so heavily on reggae, which I associated with Jamaica.

“You know there’s a whole strain of West African reggae, right?” he responded.

Understanding Sade

photo credit: Sophie Muller

In case you missed it, New York Times music critic Jon Pareles profiled Sade (above) in Sunday's paper.  Here's what one of the singer's close friends told him about her:

“With most artists they’re more of a big person in their public persona than they are in their private persona, and I’d say with Sade it’s almost the other way around,” said Sophie Muller, a friend she met while attending Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design who became her video director and, for “Soldier of Love,” the album-cover photographer. “Her whole self is not for public consumption.”

Ms. Muller added, “Somehow the idea of being a singer and making music has been confused with being an international personality. She’s bravely decided she doesn’t have to do the other thing. It’s not something she’s thought about, deciding, ‘Let’s make it more mysterious.’ It’s just her own way.”

Read the full profile, as well as hear audio clips from the interview here.

Q&A with The Bots

The Bots: Anaiah (l) and Mikaiah Lei
Photo credit: Walter Einenkel, courtesy of Vital Records

An edited version of this ran on Converse.com on January 15.  Here’s the full version of my conversation with Mikaiah and Anaiah Lei, better known as The Bots.

Have you heard of The Bots?  If not, then meet Mikaiah and Anaiah Lei--16 and 13 years old, respectively--two brothers from Glendale, California who are causing quite a buzz with their debut album, “Self-Titled Album”.  Their sound reflects influences as diverse as Punk, Ska, Rock and Reggae.

How did you two get your start with music?

Mikaiah:  It's always present in our family. We have a musical family, you know, my parents are Rastafari so reggae was always playing.  They loved music, and we've always loved music .
Anaiah: And our dad always showed us music on the computer too. We always did that too.
M: Yeah that's something we always did together, us and him, since we were like 5 years old.  He'd show us System of A Down, like hardcore stuff, and rock today.  And yeah, and you know our dad used to take us to the studio a lot. His friends are engineers.
A:  We went there a lot, and we got to hang with H.R. from Bad Brains. He was buddies with our dad.
M: I remember eating their food! Aaaalways eating their food.

Talk about some of the music that inspires you.  Who are some of your musical heroes?

M: We like a lot of the same people: Bad Brains, The Arctic Monkeys, The White Stripes.  But heavy rotation? That would be Arcade Fire, Vampire Weekend... The Yeah. Yeah Yeahs.
A:  But Arcade Fire the most.

What songs do like the best?

A: "No Cars Go".... "Headlights Look Like Diamond"s..... What else? "In The Back Seat".... that's all Arcade Fire.

M: I am picky about the music I listen to. Like Arcade Fire, before it became really big with the Wild Things movie I listened to "Wake Up" all the time, played it a lot myself, too.  But really listen to it.... It's an emotional song. The way he sings it, some lyrics might not make sense but you can get it.  I also like how they play with all kinds of different sounds...Celtic...the violins… I love the violins.  It's a beautiful sound. Yeah, its that they have a current sound and touch on something classical.  Yeah, it's just different. Maybe that's why it's so important to me and Anaiah that our music is our own.

What's it like having to balance touring and school?

M: I actually haven’t noticed the change.  We don’t participate in any activities at school.  We just do our music.  We go to school, we do a show, we practice.

VIDEO: The 54 -- "Domination"

Been aware of these guys for a minute, but just discovered this video.  Haven't heard their album yet, but this morning got a tweet from fam in ATL (thanks Gudrun!) that the band's live show kills.  By the looks of this video, it looks like these guys can show and prove.

From what I see on their MySpace page, it looks like they'll be at SXSW.  In the meantime, I'm sure our ATL contributor Dom Brady has them in his sights for an interview in the near future.

Additional link:

• The 54 on Myspace

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LISTENING POST: SociaLybrium -- "Another Day"

SociaLyrbium (l to r): Blackbyrd McKnight, Bernie Worrell, JT Lewis, Melvin Gibbs

Four badasses get together and make the magic look easy. 

SociaLybrium is  Blackbyrd McKnight, Bernie Worrell, Melvin Gibbs and JT Lewis.  If you're not familiar with them, then check them out here and see the who's who list of folks they've worked with: P-Funk, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rollins Band, Herbie Hancock, Sting. 

There's a lot of good stuff on their recently released album, "For You/For Us/For All", but this is one of my favorite tracks.  Blackbyrd absolutely blazes the guitar solo here.

Damn, these guys have probably forgotten more about music than most of us will ever learn.

Additional link:

• SociaLybrium on MySpace
• "For You/For Us/For All" on Amazon
• "For You/For Us/For All" on iTunes

Do you like what you've seen on this blog over the last three years? If so, consider making a small donation--$1, $5, $10--whatever you can. Here's why I'm asking and how you can donate.

Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (the Hood Opera)

Tomorrow marks the first of three preview performances of Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (the Hood Opera), Melvin Van Peebles' (above) musical adaptation of his groundbreaking 1971 film of the same name.  The musical was originally scheduled for only two previews--on February 3rd and 4th--but due to overwhelming demand a third performance has been added for Friday, February 5.  All performances are at 8pm, but the first two are sold out.

This is a great opportunity to see this musical in advance of its world premiere at the Son D'Hiver Festival in Paris on February 19 and 20.  From the press release:

Sweet Sweetback at BRIC will give audiences a unique opportunity to experience the intimate process of artistic collaboration between BRIC Artists-In-Residence Van Peebles and music ensemble Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber, along with a large cast of actors and singers, as they bring to the stage one of the most influential films of the African-American cinema.
 
The work-in-progress previews will conclude with an audience dialogue with the artists, followed by a book-signing with Melvin Van Peebles.
 
Tickets are $10 and can be purchased online at www.bricartsmedia.org and at the door two hours ahead of showtime on the day of each performance at the BRIC Box Office.  BRIC Arts | Media | Bklyn is located at 647 Fulton Street, 2nd floor (entrance on Rockwell Pl.) in Downtown Brooklyn.  Telephone is 718-855-7882.
 
A fiercely independent artist whose work on Broadway has earned him eleven Tony nominations, Mr. Van Peebles financed, wrote, directed, scored, and starred in the original film version of Sweet Sweetback, paving the way for the success of future independent black films. An important work in the history of African-American cinema, it tells the story of a deprived African-American man on his flight from the white authority in satirical, realistic and often humorous detail. The original musical score was performed by Earth, Wind & Fire.
 
Burnt Sugar has been described as a “funk-rock-electronic-samba-soul-jazzfusion-whatever ensemble” and counts among its influences Bitches Brew-era Miles Davis, Funkadelic, Bad Brains, Band of Gypsys, Sun Ra and Herbie Hancock’s Mwandishi.  Bandleader Greg Tate “plays the band” using a technique called conduction, which gets its name from the field of physics, and was developed by jazz conductor Butch Morris. Employing a series of gestures, baton twirls, eye contact, and facial expressions that are used to communicate directions to the band, the bandleader can change the melodic and harmonic structure, creating a one-time composition that could not have been predicted nor repeated.

After the break, check out some pics I shot during a rehearsal last month.

Mr. Van Peebles directing the action onstage.

Greg Tate directing Burnt Sugar

Greg Tate and Laronda Davis, handler of B.I. (aka the business)

Burnt Sugar and a member of the cast

Mr. Van Peebles working with the actors

Additional link:

• Melvin Van Peebles' wikipedia page
  

REVIEW: Corinne Bailey Rae’s "The Sea": Mourning Becomes Beauty

Corinne Bailey Rae’s much anticipated sophomore album The Sea premieres today in the U.S. four years after her self-titled debut captured fans on both sides of the pond with “Like a Star” and almost two years since the much publicized death of her husband, Jason Rae. Though loss permeates the album, which Bailey Rae describes as more “intense and heavy” than her first, The Sea isn’t a bunch of sad songs. Like some of our best artists—Billie Holiday and Nina Simone come immediately to mind—Corinne Bailey Rae takes pain and transforms it into the beauty of stolen moments and cherished memories.

Her opening song “Are You Here” is a case in point. Bailey Rae’s caressing voice accompanied by a simple guitar riff pays tribute to her lost love with a sweet and subtle invocation: “He’s a real live wire/He’s the best of his kind/Wait til you see those eyes.” That sweetness punctuates the album, which is billed as pop, but is an amalgam of soul, jazz, rock, and folk. The soft moans and sensuous rhythm of “Closer,” my hands-down favorite track, revives the soulful sound of Minnie Riperton and The Emotions. The album flows from the more intimate tracks like “Closer” and “I Would Like to Call it Beauty” (written with her brother-in-law) to a rock and retro mood in “The Blackest Lily” (recorded with Amir “?uestlove” Thompson and James Poyser) and “Paris Nights/New York Mornings.” The closing title track captures the album’s effort to balance the desolation of loss and the regeneration that one hopes will inevitably follow. The final lines of “The Sea” lament: “The sea … breaks everything/crushes everything/cleans everything/takes everything/from me.” It breaks. It renews.

I think I’ll call it beauty.   

 --Jennifer Williams

Additional links:

• Official Corinne Bailey Rae Website
• CBR on Facebook
  

VIDEO: Game Rebellion -- "Blind"

GAME REBELLION- BLIND from Free Integrated Media on Vimeo.

The Rebels visualize their first single.  Day-glo all the way.  Nicely done, fellas.