ANANDA PROJECT / “Cascades of Colour”

01 Cascades Of Colour.mp3 (9.22 MB)

I'd like to be recognized less for my production and more for simply the musical content. I think that music is first and foremost a language, second a technique.
—Chris Brann

I am not a house freak; at 58, I don’t hardly do clubbin’ no more, but, man, I gotta tell you between Joe Clausell and the Ananda Project, well, let’s just say I may have hung up my all-night dancin’ shoes but my sole (& especially my soul) still feels the groove. And what a mighty groove “Cascades of Colour” is!

 

It helps to have a heavenly vocalist, i.e. Gaelle Addison. Sister-love positively glows with her honey-sweet flow. However, Gaelle’s talent notwithstanding, a singer can make a hit but you got to have substantial material to work with in order to produce a classic. Like Jerry Butler once said to me in an interview, vocalists come and go, but a good song is like real estate, it appreciates. And you’re oh so right my brother. In this case we have both an excellent vocalist and an excellent song.

“Cascades” was released in 2000—it's only five years old—but in house music circles, it's already a classic. Whenever I play it on the radio, I usually get at least one call—inquiring ears want to know.


 
For me, it’s Chris Brann’s orchestration, and I know 'orchestration' is a funny word to use talking about dance music, but when you check Brann’s ingenious descending five-chord harmonic development, the elegantly-crafted melody and counterpoint, floating polyrhythms and electronically-produced ambient sounds judiciously layered atop of a heartbeat pulsing four/four which rises and falls dynamically in tune with the ever-shifting moods of the composition, plus the garnishment of inspirational poetic lyrics, well, clearly this track was carefully put together.

I mentioned Clausell because he was the producer/DJ who really got me 'listening' to house, which is quite a feat for a music designed specifically for the dance floor. After checking his remix of “Cascades” I went on a mission to find Ananda Project. Once I secured the source, my next mission was to get the Re-Release cd and also cop the multi-remixed, ten track “Cascades” CD single. Now that I have all in hand, I can state without equivocation that “Cascades” is definitely one of my all-time favorite house tunes. Listen to this infectious club classic in it’s original form as well as two remixes, one an afro-percussion led workout produced by Joe Claussell, and the other the jazz-inflected Sugar Loaf remix. The lyrical lushness of this song will captivate even the most sophisticated, or, depending on your viewpoint, the most jaded music lover.

—Kalamu ya Salaam



          I’m biased against house records         

I initially wasn't going to comment on this one because it's a house record and I'm biased against house records. (And disco records, and techno records, and anything else with that unchanging, metronomic beat.) I still won't comment on the actual song except to say I like the sister's voice.

The only point I wanted to make is this: music is only good or bad in relation to other music of its kind. That's why it's so silly to have these Greatest Albums Of All Time lists. (We'll be doing one soon.) Wu-Tang Clan's Enter The Wu and Cannonball Adderley's Somethin' Else are classics of their respective genres and two of my favorite albums but it's ridiculous to argue about which one is better. They have almost nothing in common. Since I don't like house records in general, me saying I don't like a particular one would be virtually meaningless.

—Mtume ya Salaam


          Digging in and playing full out         

I hear you, Mtume. So what about the two other versions: the afro-percussion and the jazz piano versions? That the song works in widely divergent styles indicates that the composition has some substance, especially since these are remixes. The vocal tracks are unchanging. The basic melody remains the same. The same harmonies. But it’s not the same in the final effect.

Personally, I would love to hear this done totally live with musicians playing in real time, even if they use computers, samplers and drum machines—but then, again, I know most of the dance music musicians are not jazz musicians, which, to me, means most of them don’t have the chops to compose as they improvise, which is what the professional 20th century jazz musicians had to learn how to do (excluding that “smooth jazz” bullshit, ah, mall escalator music—that shit don’t even go past two or three floors up!).

Illustrative of what I mean, Chris Brand works under another moniker: P’taah. And it’s both more electronic as well as an actual band. Here is a link for a concert they did in Amsterdam, which to me demonstrates both the strengths of playing live and the weakness of dance musicians trying to do jazz—the solos, which range from adequate to good, unfortunately, just are not as interesting as the concept and the themes. But check it out for yourself. P'taah live in Amsterdam: http://3voor12.vpro.nl/3voor12/groups/index.jsp?groups=6055025

My point is I love to hear musicians really doing it in whatever genre they work—digging in and playing full out.

Anyway, what I was asking is your opinion on the different versions and whether you hear the song differently in comparing the versions?

—Kalamu ya Salaam

  

         Good shit           

Actually, when I wrote my first response, I hadn’t heard the other two versions. I like both of them a lot. The ‘broken beat’ version (that’s what it sounds like to me—don’t know what it’s called officially) is particularly good. The lyrics are hip, Gaelle’s voice is gorgeous and since they’ve done away with the steady thump-thump-thump, I’m feeling it. Good shit.

—Mtume ya Salaam 

 

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 28th, 2005 at 12:01 am and is filed under Classic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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