breath of life

November 16, 2009

Administrator — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 04:49:16 +0000

We start with prison work songs from Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas; then we dive down to Jamrock to catch up to reggae songstress Cherine Anderson; and we end with an exploration of "Work Song" by lyricist Oscar Brown Jr., composer Nat Adderley, Joe Williams, Michael Wolff, Terry Callier, Cannonball Adderley, Nina Simone and Afro-German vocalist Lyambiko. Plus three bonus cuts featuring Sam Cooke, Jerry Butler and Otis Redding.

VARIOUS ARTISTS / “Work Song Mixtape”

Administrator — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 04:48:42 +0000

Sometimes the connections linking different styles of the music are not obvious, other times the relationships are directly stated. “Work Song,” a jazz classic by cornetist Nat Adderley with lyrics by Oscar Brown Jr., represents a conscious effort to acknowledge the debt modern jazz owes to an earlier form of music. The song is also a critique of the American system of injustice that prevailed during the first half of the 20th century.

Just as there were differences from state to state and from time period to time period, these musical versions aurally illustrate diverse variations on a common theme.

01 Sin & Soul… And Then Some - Oscar Brown Jr.
This is probably the most widely known version, featuring the gritty vocals of lyricist Oscar Brown Jr.

02 Autobiography - Nat Adderley
Some folk consider this a “lite” album because of the R&B influences but I like the variations Nat introduces. While this may not be the best version from a blowing standpoint, it is one of the more interesting arrangements.

03 Blues in My Heart - Joe Williams and Carmen McRae
It’s dangerously easy to take Joe Williams for granted but don’t sleep. Joe Williams was a master vocalist with both an astounding range and a superb sense of timing with his phrasing. Check his ending on this short version—that’s a baritone singer par excellence!

04 Dangerous Vision - Michael Wolff & Impure Thoughts
Pianist Wolff wins my admiration with this poly-rhythmic interpretation of a classic theme.

05 1964-Live At Mother Blues - Terry Callier
Terry Callier, Terry Callier, that man does so much with his burnished voice and makes it all sound so casual, so simple yet it’s far from a naïve reading. At first it sounds like some old blues guitarist or maybe a folk singer who is blues influenced, but this is an urbane musician who is radically altering the chords to produce a singular interpretation. Wonderful.

06 Phenix - Cannonball Adderley
What is most admirable about Cannon’s long career is that he kept on developing his music by revisiting and revising old songs, and also by exploring new directions. This is a truly spirited rendition recorded in 1975 mere months before he died from a stroke. The band is Cannonball Adderley (soprano & alto saxophones); Nat Adderley (cornet); George Duke (keyboards, synthesizer); Mike Wolff (keyboards); Walter Booker (acoustic & electric basses); Sam Jones (acoustic bass); Louis Hayes, Roy McCurdy (drums); Airto Moreira (congas, percussion). That’s George Duke soloing on keyboards.

07 Colpix Years Anthology - Nina Simone
Nina Simone—I don’t need to say anything else.

08 Paris, Salle Pleyel, 1969 - Cannonball Adderley
These cats are textbook definition of swinging—that is, if there was some magic textbook that could teach anyone to swing this hard. The band is Cannonball Adderley (alto saxophone); Nat Adderley (cornet); Joe Zawinul (keyboards); Victor Gaskin (bass); Roy McCurdy (percussion).

09 Out Of This Mood – Lyambiko
Afro-German vocalist Lyambiko sounds like she’s singing her way out of jail a la Leadbelly who did it twice (got his prison sentences reduced by singing for/to the authorities. That takes some singing, and that’s what Lyambiko is doing.

* * *

And now a bonus. In the jukebox there are three versions of Sam Cooke’s seminal “Chain Gang” as performed first by Sam Cooke, then Jerry Butler doing his ultra-smooth do, and closing out with the Big “O”—Otis Redding—breaking bricks with the force of his voice. These songs are directly in keeping with the spirit of “Work Song.”

CHERINE ANDERSON / “Cherine Anderson Mixtape”

Administrator — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 04:47:59 +0000

Eternal question: how to leave the rock, how to rock the rock? We no want to go away, we a want to stay. Love home, rep home. But yard hard. No soul want a be forever down, stepped upon. We assert ourselves against authority. We our own authority. But everyday downpressor on our back in everyway. What we gon do? The upward struggle of our living down-under make our music come strong, got to be tuff enuff to stand forward in the shit-storm.

Take a little woman like this here hummingbird Cherine who sing eagle strong. Who can coo like a dove but really who owl wise to the tricks and games vultures run. She no rooster but she rule her own roose. Every guinea love it own yard but still like she know it always be better to fly the world than to become turkey on rich man table.

Cherine, Cherine. Come yall and listen to what the young songbird say.

* * *

I call my music “Dancehall Soul.” My sound is a hybrid of all the things that have inspired me. I have influences from roots reggae, dancehall, R&B, soul to gospel. So it’s an eclectic soulful sound that is more anchored in my Caribbean dancehall culture. Behind the beat is a message which incorporates the grittiness of my past with the sweetness of things that I have been exposed to.
—Cherine Anderson

Me ear always cocked to hear new sound. Some months back I heard a radio show/mixtape featuring Jamaica’s latest sensation, a young woman call Cherine. Went look for her and all I could find was soon come, soon come. Then I see she in a movie, playing the church girl lead opposite rasta romeo Ky-Mani Marley. One Love they call it.

Also peeped her in Dancehall Queen but that was before I fully knew what I was looking at.

And then a waterfall of singles started raining. Many of them collaborations with Cherise’s voice cool running the supporting spot to a big up male artist, except her background end up being the main attraction. Something truly deft-fresh in her tones, the way she a chuckle tickle your soul, make you want to hear more. She a little piece of leather with a powerful, attractive whip crack of a voice, makes you pay attention.

So now, soon has somewhat come. She a drop an EP, not even a proper full length but it’s a coolly satisfying drink from a short-shot glass. And I man thankful for this sound satiating my thirst.

Born September 25, 1984 in Rockfort, East Kingston, Jamaica, Cherine Anderson’s coming up background is that of many; she could be any sistren from around the way. You see her at bus stop, standing in grocery line, waiting in clinic chair, waitressing at a local eatery. You know what I’m saying? Yeah, she a shine eye worth a second glance but she no massive beauty model, nor bright-skinned, model, Euro-looking, close-to-passing, movie-like black woman. Nah man, she a black. Dark inside and out.

Her cradle was hood, her attitude is the sufferer strength of a survivor. She a one of these women we all know: our mothers who are so seldom celebrated in the picture show, our grandmothers raising us right, our baby mamas who see beyond our shortcomings and sacrifice to keep our children running. They are the ones whose teeth crack hardness bone and suck out marrow nourishment. And in doing all a that, and in being all of that, they become spiritual amazon warrior women, the front line of existence and the back up for our daily struggles.

Cherine Anderson come from Kingston, the heartbeat of Jamrock, aka Jamaica, where even tender have to be tough in order to grow up. Fortunately, her parents kept her and two older sisters in church and push them to keep up in school.

As with a majority of black vocalists, Cherine’s foundational training ground was the church. “It wasn’t so much the message in the church songs that appealed to me at first…it was the passion and strength of peoples’ voices,” she candidly notes.

At age 12 she became a member of and toured with Ashe Performing Arts Ensemble. During this period she received professional instruction in dance, music and theatre. Once smitten, Cherine went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts in Film and Music and a minor in Japanese Language and Literature from Middlebury College, Jamaica. Her college years included participation in an overseas program that took her to Japan.

In 1997 she won a supporting role in the Jamaican hit movie Dancehall Queen. Cherine played Tanya, the daughter of the lead character. The prestigious duo of Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare produced the movie soundtrack and invited Cherine to contribute. During the process, Sly asked Cherine to try her hand at writing lyrics and a melody for a rhythm track he had created. She aced the assignment and that was the beginning of a major collaboration that has included featured vocal spots on major remix projects Sly&Robbie were commissioned to do for international stars such as Madonna, Britney Spears and Sir Paul McCartney.

Soon a slew of hit singles and collaborations poured forth and in 2003 she won a starring role opposite Ky-Mani Marley in the movie One Love.

What may seem to be an overnight success story is actually the result of over a decade of hard work, buttressed by formal study and internships/apprenticeships working in the entertainment industry.

Through it all, what is important is that Cherine has stood tall artistically and morally. Cherine notes, “I have seen so many girls my age and even younger come into the studio and before they even sing a note “on key” they are talking about being “sexy”. Image is very important but we should adopt an attitude where by we focus and commit to making “GREAT” music. Music that will affect people not only in Jamaica but internationally."

* * *

So what I hear is two big things. One: I hear a sexy young woman who know her thing is a good thing and have no shame in celebrating what her mama birth she. Without sluting up her act, Cherine celebrate the sensual self. And this serious sexiness is a sign of life vitalness and vigor not of pornography and prostitution. She knows how to call attention to her body without taking her clothes off. Some of the serious heads come so straight-laced they erase sensuality from the equation of life, but we people have always had body touch as a major part of our living, which is how and why we be dancing instead of simply shuffling and suffering up under the man. Dig; it’s ike Bootsy says, “In funk we thrust.”

So Cherine she keep the physical alive, which all is how humans should be. That’s the one drop. Now the second step is actually the hand on hip stance that is conscious of what’s coming even before the slackness arrive. I’m saying queen got third eye awareness. There is plan, and not simply play, in her game.

So the last part of the Mixtape fiercely celebrates principles and higher standards than mere survival. Cherine was paying attention in political education classes, she understand class struggle, not fooled by skin color, nor seduced by phallus flag. Nah man, Cherine woman she understand we must deal with all facets of our struggle, and for women, whether labeled as such or not, feminism (the empowerment of women) is a must.

So listen to “How We Living” and you will hear what must be done, where we coming from and where we got to go. Or as Cherine sings, it’s a “Kingston State of Mind.” Be clear-eyed, see ourselves for who and what we are, uplift the strong, do away with the wrong. Sista-girl got it, she understands.

So you know she be writing a bunch of her own songs. She no marionette jerking beneath someone else string pull. Nah, this child is a full grown, self-directed woman. Don’t let her schoolgirl looks fool you, she been around long enough to have seen it all before, and has drawn some conclusions about what her songs going to say, about where her career be going.

Acting doesn’t help me on stage. I don’t act when I perform…I just simple BE! I am totally Cherine when I sing my songs…it’s more personal. I relate to my live audience not as a character but as a young woman who has layers and feelings, emotions and something to say. I enjoy expressing fun and love however it is also important to speak to reality through music.
—Cherise Anderson

So, for example, Michael Franti go to Jamaica to work with Sly & Robbie to record his last album and while down there Cherine sound crawl up in his ear so strong he feature she on three of his tracks and it was a wise draw. Her sound help make him a hit and he take her out as part of his world tour, which is how one gets to travel around without leaving home. She a never fleeing not looking back, instead she be worldwide sightseeing and gathering other world experiences. Which is why this Mixtape starts with “A Little Bit Of Riddim.”

So dig Cherine I say, listen for how deep this sistren sing.

I give you both the Redemption a capella version and the full out rocking sound-system of the king track “Kingston State of Mind,” which incorporates both spiritual and dance hall stylee. You can bathe in the clean beauty of her voice on the Redemption, or you can drop down and wind it up on the rhythm version. Same song, same sensibility, one for the soul, the other for the body, both be for us because we have both the spiritual and the physical. Cherine she understand how to appeal to both, understand we need both, understand that in the totality of life in order to fully live we have to both embrace the sacred and touch the physical.

So when I mentioned up front the conundrum of how to leave and simultaneously stay, Cherise come now and provide answer. Listen to her anthem “Shine On Jamaica.” Check how it abruptly end, letting you know the song stopped but it not finished. We still got a ways to go.

So like they say in Ghana, we must go-come. Go where we need to go to get whatever we need to get and then come back quick to give to and celebrate our roots, for it’s a sad frog don’t croak about its own pond—and there no sadness in Cherise sound. She shining on.

(Plus must call attention to the innovation of the arrangements, how she ingeniously references rather than merely copies past music thereby becoming an extension rather than simply an imitation. Need I tell you Sly & Robbie produced both Black Uhuru’s “Solidarity” and Cherise’s “Shine On Jamaica.”)

So this here we a hear is a slice of the latest rising coming up out of Jamrock. And moreover, what is noteworthy is that Cherine Anderson may just become the first female Jamaican reggae singer (other than Grace Jones who did not fully focus on reggae) to make international noise. The men been coming on strong, even got generations of Marleys holding forth. But there has yet to be a singing sistren to surmount the pinnacle of international recognition.

Who next to bring the noise? I hear Cherine Anderson in the wings and she singing a mighty beautiful song.

—Kalamu ya Salaam

Cherise Anderson Mixtape Playlist

Come now, hear what selector done selected. No one source, sounds come from all over but Cherine does have a proper introduction with her new CD, The Introduction: Dubstyle EP. She is obviously making serious career moves with the collaborations and also making mighty waves with her own anthems. Enjoy.

01 “A Little Bit Of Riddim” - All Rebel Rockers - Michael Franti & Spearhead

02 “Tuff Enuff” - The Introduction

03 “My Neighbor feat. Beenie Man” - Dazzling Riddim

04 “Coming Over Night (Feat. Chuck Fender)" - Songs for Reggae Lovers

05 “Good Love” - Anniversary - Sly & Robbie and The Taxi Gang
06 “Skin To Skin” - The Introduction

07 “Who You Calling Boo” - Cell Block Female Quarters

08 “20 To Life” – Dubwise/Indiscretion
09 “Hey Baby”
10 “Real Love”
11 “Talk If Yuh Talking” - The Introduction

12 “Soul Sista (ft Fat Joe, Cherine Anderson & Will Guice” - Play With Bootsy - Bootsy Collins

13 “This Angel” - One Love Sound Track
14 “How We Living” - The Introduction

15 “Kingston State of Mind (Redemption Mix)” - Kingston State of Mind (Single)
16 “Kingston State Of Mind” - The Introduction
17 “Shine On Jamaica” - The Introduction
18 “Shine On (accapella)”

VARIOUS ARTISTS / “Prison Work Songs Mixtape”

Administrator — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 04:47:10 +0000

The United States has the largest prison population in the world—yes, even larger than China, a country whose population is much larger than the population of the United States. Why? Why should the richest country in the world have the largest number of convicts in the world? Is crime endemic to capitalism? Are prison an inevitable byproduct of democracy?

I know this is an unorthodox discussion of music but my point is that all music is rooted in a social context and in the case of prison work songs the context is much deeper than simply some songs sung by convicts.

The power of the singing is part of what makes the question so vexing. If you listen to these songs all the way through, I guarantee some of the phrases and melodies won’t leave your mind anytime soon. You’ll find yourself waiting at a stop light or on a metro or bus and all of sudden some fragment will circle in your consciousness.

The purpose of these songs was to help one survive a neigh unbearable situation. It wasn’t just the hard work, it was also the utter injustice. To be born black, poor and male in the rural Jim Crow south was literally a likely sentence to hard labor.

But as we listen to the music something magical happens. Before we realize it, we are rocking in time to these work songs. Although these men are not entertainers; they are not trying to cut a hit record, nevertheless, the stark realness of this music verges on the mesmerizing.

These prison recordings are the work of three men—Alan Lomax, Frederick Oster and Bruce Jackson. Lomax and Oster were committed to documenting folk music. Photographer and film maker Bruce Jackson recorded the Texas songs.

The bulk of these songs was recorded in the forties and fifties at the infamous Angola State Prison in Louisiana and at Parchman Prison in Mississippi. A handful of them come from the Texas recording in the 1960s.

The prison conditions were horrendous. In 1952, 31 inmates cut their Achilles tendons to protest the conditions at Angola. The majority of men sentenced to ten years or more at Angola ended up dying in prison. This is just a thumbnail sketch of the conditions under which these songs were recorded.

The history of black music in the United States is replete with social trouble and hardships rooted in extreme injustice—and though conditions are not as brutal today, the fact remains that slavery remains legal in America as provided for by the constitution which permits slavery in the case of convicts.

We may not still be singing work songs but black and poor communities are still subject to massive imprisonment. I leave to your own insights to make the connection between prison and music in the 21st century.

This week we are considering prison work songs from the Jim Crow period of the United States.

—Kalamu ya Salaam

Prison Work Songs Playlist

01 “Rosie” - Prison Songs - Prison Songs - Historical Recordings from Parchman

02 “Julie” - Wake Up Dead Man

03 “Berta” - Angola Prison Worksongs
04 “Early In The Mornin’ ” - Prison Songs - Historical Recordings from Parchman
05 “Log Lodging Talk, Yells, Chants” - Wake Up Dead Man

06 “John Henry” - Prison Songs, Vol. 2
07 “Hammer Ring” - Wake Up Dead Man
08 “Take This Hammer” - Angola Prison Worksongs
09 “How I Got In The Penitentiary” - Prison Songs - Historical Recordings from Parchman
10 “I Had Five Long Years” - Angola Prison Worksongs
11 "Stewball" - Angola Prison Worksongs
12 “I Got a Hurtin’ in My Right Side” - Angola Prison Worksongs
13 “Early in the Mornin’ ” - Angola Prison Worksongs
14 “Let Your Hammer Ring” - Angola Prison Worksongs
15 “Murder’s Home” - Negro Prison Blues And Songs
16 “Working on the Levee, Pt. 2” - Angola Prison Worksongs
17 “It Makes A Long Time Man Feel Bad” - Prison Songs - Historical Recordings from Parchman
18 “Early in the Morning” - Wake Up Dead Man
19 “I’m in the Bottom” - Wake Up Dead Man
20 “No More, My Lawd” - Negro Prison Blues And Songs
21 “Old Alabama” - Prison Songs - Historical Recordings from Parchman
22 “What Makes A Work Song Leader?” - Prison Songs - Historical Recordings from Parchman
23 “Stewball” - Prison Songs, Vol. 2
24 “When I Went to Leland” - Prison Songs, Vol. 2
25 “I’m Goin’ to Memphis” - Prison Songs, Vol. 2

November 9, 2009

Administrator — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:48:58 +0000

This is a deep week. We kick off with Miles Davis & John Coltrane, live performances from 1960, the last time they performed together in concert. Then we cross the pond to check out British media personality and songtress Mica Paris. Then check your passport because we go all over the world with 17 versions of "Waiting In Vain" featuring Bob Marley, Floetry, Ruia, Lee Ritennour & Maxi Priest, Annie Lennox, Coco Tea & Cutty Ranks, Marvin Gaye, Lou Pride, MYMP, Jody Watley, Marisa Lindsay, Gilberrto Gil, Dianne Reeves with The Doky Brothers.

VARIOUS ARTISTS / “Waiting In Vain Mixtape”

Administrator — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:48:21 +0000

We’ve already discussed this song on BoL, and also discussed Annie Lenox’s version in particular, BUT, as this Mixtape hopefully makes abundantly clear, there is still a lot more to be sung/said about Bob’s great “Waiting In Vain” song.

So here goes a major revelation of beaucoup versions of this song including five versions by Bob. That’s right, FIVE versions by Mr. Marley himself. Two are from the Deluxe Edition of Exodus (one is the original release and the other is an alternate version). The alternate is notable for the piano solo and the wobbly-psychedelic guitar background.

A third version is a dub track of unknown provenance but for sure it’s Bob. Four is a Bill Laswell remix from the Dreams Of Freedom release. And the fifth version is a bonus track at the end of the Mixtape. It seems to be a studio out-take. Bob playing acoustic backed by an electric bass, jamming for nineteen minutes. This “Waiting In Vain” acoustic jam is from a tape identified as The Sons of Jah Acoustic, purported to have been recorded in London 1977 in the Island Records studio. Unbelievable, but here it is.

And that’s not even half of the Mixtape. Beyond Bob we have a veritable cornucopia of versions. I guarantee there is music here you’ve never heard before.

* * *

“Waiting In Vain” is widely alleged to be written by Bob when he was pursuing Cindy Breakspeare. Cynthia Jean Cameron Breakspeare (born October 24, 1954) is the mother of Damien Marley and in 1976 won the Miss World beauty contest.

In addition to Bob’s reputation as a rebel, he was also widely known as a celebrated ladies man, and as such, wrote a batch of lovely reggae romance songs, major among them is “Waiting In Vain.”

* * *

01 The Mixtape opens with the original release from the album Exodus.

02 This is Floetry from their album Flo’Ology. They’ve added an interesting hook and a light vocal chorus background.

03 Ruia out of New Zealand with a Maori version that reflects the Kiwi fascination with all things Marley. Reggae is big down under. This is from an out of print Bob Marley tribute album.

04 Next up is jazz guitarist Lee Ritennour working with British reggae vocalist Maxi Priest. Lee works a Wes Montgomery vibe on this lilting version. Available on Ritennour’s A Twist of Marley.

05 That’s British pop diva Annie Lenox from her album Medusa. This is the version we referenced earlier.

06 Dance hall stylee featuring Coco Tea & Cutty Ranks. Look out now, baby girl! Coco Tea is the sweet vocalist and Cutty Ranks is the ruff-voiced Emcee. This is from the reggae compilation Strictly The Best Eighteen.

07 Here is Bob in dub from something identified as The Secret Blackwell Dubs—and I don’t have a clue about the actual origins of this version. Not available commercially but floating around the internet.

08 Now here is a real scream. It’s a mash up, two different songs mixed together: an instrumental of Bob Marley & The Wailers doing “Waiting In Vain” behind Marvin Gaye doing “Sexual Healing.” Again, like the preceding dub version, this mash up is not commercially available.

09 Up next is soul brother Lou Pride offering a bluesy version from the Southside of Chicago. This is from Pride’s Keep On Believing release.

10 Here is a Bill Laswell remix production from the album Dreams Of Freedom: Ambient Translations In Dub. Remixing is Laswell’s thing, a thing he does well.

11 Back to the islands, this time we’re in the Philippines lover’s rocking with an acoustic duo known as MYMP (Make Your Mama Proud). This is from their album Soulful Acoustic.

12 Now it’s club time, dance diva Jody Watley drops a house version that has some interesting percussion textures. This is from The Makeover, her recent 2006 album (which was re-produced and re-released in 2009—they took the title literally—but fear not, both versions contain “Waiting In Vain”).

13 It’s an alternate take by Bob from the Deluxe Edition of Exodus.

14 Another production from an island; this time Barbados featuring vocalist Marisa Lindsay, available on her debut release Submit To Love.

15 Down to Brazil next with Gilberto Gil from his marvelous Marley tribute album, Kaya N’Gan Daya.

16 This is my favorite of all the version, jazz vocalist Dianne Reeves with the Doky Brothers (pianist Niels Lan Doky and bassist Chris Minh Doky) out of Copenhagen, Denmark, taken from their second album, Doky Brothers 2.

17 And here is the bonus track: acoustic Bob jamming in the studio.

MICA PARIS / “Mica Paris Mixtape”

Administrator — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:47:53 +0000

She’s stayed on the scene for over two decades. Moving from concerts and recordings, to radio, to stage, to television, to print—constantly moving but always being herself. But even with all of that, you may not have heard or heard of Mica Paris.

Her scene has been Great Britain even though she has spent time in the USA. Michelle Wallen was born April 27, 1969 in South London.

My grandfather was a minister, and we were the first family of the church. When I was a little girl, I used to study all of my auntie’s albums. All of her albums were the Hawkins Family and Andre Crouch, so when I was 7, I used to listen to the albums and then turn them over and read every single instrument that was being played. I could tell you who was playing what. The person that I used to emulate more than anyone was the sister of Walter, Lynette Hawkins. Lynette was my hero, and she was the one I would be singing with in the house. I was just obsessed with the Hawkinses. I knew every song that they did. By the time I was 10, everyone in the family was going on and on about me having this voice. My grandmother told me that they had some visitors coming down to church, and she would really like for me to sing. I sang a song called ‘God Will Open Doors.’ It was my first time ever singing in front of people. I went up on the stage and sang, and I remember being so frightened walking up there. I remember thinking, "How can I get my knees to stop shaking? This is really not good!" The minute I started to sing the words, which started out: ‘When you can’t see your way, and you feel that you are lost astray, God will open doors for you.’ I did that, and the whole place just went nuts. At that point, I said, "Well, I’m gonna hold that note longer." I did that note that just goes on and on where people don’t think you’re ever gonna stop. The whole place went crazy, and I was like, "I like this singing thing. It’s kinda cool." At that point, I didn’t really know that I was a great singer at 10. I just knew that it was my first ever appearance.
—Mica Paris

The story would be typical except it took place in London and not in Detroit, Chicago, Philly or New York, and not in Memphis, New Orleans or Atlanta. With that background things happened fast for Mica Paris.

She created a stage name for herself and slowly began to blow up and as in demand back up vocalist. She appeared on too many major recordings to even start naming. During a London concert, Prince called her on stage to sing a feature. Some years later he wrote a song for her and produced a track one on her albums. By the time Mica was seventeen she had a recording contract. By eighteen she had a hit record. There seemed to be no stopping her.

I was a session singer. I left church at fifteen and then I started doing backup vocals for Hollywood Beyond, Shakatak and other bands. At seventeen I signed my deal with Island Records. It took a year to make the
album and we released it in ‘88. I left school and went straight into the record business. I’ve never had a job. This is all I know.
—Mica Paris

A funny thing happened on the way to becoming famous. Three albums (1988 – So Good, 1990 – Contribution, 1993 – Whisper A Prayer) later she was miserable. The record company sent her through changes as company ownership changed hands. It took five years for the fourth album (1998 – Black Angel) to hit the airwaves. The title cut was written by Boy George. And the album had zero push from the company.

What had happened was she got caught in the old catch-22: because the company didn’t market her records, her records didn’t sell and because she wasn’t selling hit records, the company wouldn’t put out another record. From the company perspective they had spent a ton of money to produce the record and it didn’t sell, so rather than promote the record, they basically sat on it. The record busy-ness can drive you crazy. Fortunately, when one door closed, other doors flew open and Mica Paris was able to develop career opportunities other than as a singer and recording artist.

What basically happened was that I just couldn’t get ARRESTED when I left EMI after the (1998-released) ‘Black Angel’ album. But, while I couldn’t get a record deal, at the same time I was starting to get a lot of love from TV and radio. You know, people kept putting me forward for things like the Radio 2 show I had called ‘Soul Solutions’, which I ended up doing for five years. Then ‘What Not To Wear’ came about for BBC1… But over all that time I still wasn’t getting any love from the music industry. So I basically just went where the LOVE was.
—Mica Paris

Ten years later, Mica Paris has had major success as a radio and television personality. Her radio program Soul Solutions was the most successful BBC soul music program ever. It ran from 2002 to 2007 and directly led to a one-off recording project, 2005’s Soul Classics.

In 2007 she published Beautiful Within: Finding Happiness And Confidence In Your Own Skin, a combination self-help book for women and Mica’s own autobiography. She is candid about her own ups and downs, and in fact focuses more on how she survived the lows than on how she’s enjoyed the highs.

As a teenager in the eighties she was earning two thousand dollars a week and then by the time she was thirty she went bankrupt. She has two children and two marriages that didn’t work out not for the usual reason but rather because Ms. Paris was determined to pursue a profession rather than be a trophy wife supported on a restrictive pedestal by a rich husband. Beyond romantic entanglements, she has struggled with dieting and self-image to meet industry standards of beauty. What matters most is that she was able to struggle through and rise above.

What you hear in Mica’s new album, Born Again (2009), is a survivor celebrating the beauty of being alive, healthy and self-directed. Mica’s major success is how well she has survived both the up and the down sides of fame and fortune. Mica Paris has become a self-confident and accomplished woman who is both a mother and a professional. She has even created a brand with Simply Be, a fashion line for the average woman who is far from a pencil-thin model in physical size.

When you get older, you’ve got to make your style evolve with you. A lot of people stick to a time they looked good, which is normally when they’re in their twenties. It doesn’t work, though. You have to change the way you look. Your body changes and you need to dress age-appropriate or you look like a bloody idiot.
—Mica Paris

This write up barely scratches the surface of the Mica Paris story. Hopefully, the Mixtape will encourage you to delve deeper into the life of Mica Paris. The Mica Paris Mixtape is not a greatest hits, instead I’ve just grabbed some of the tracks I enjoyed and want to share those with our BoL audience.

—Kalamu ya Salaam

Mica Paris Mixtape Playlist

01 “Black Angel” - Black Angel
02 “Don’t Say Goodnight” - Black Angel
03 “Stay” - Black Angel
04 “I Wanna Hold On To You [Absolute Radio Mix]" - I Wanna Hold On To You (SINGLE)
05 “You Put A Move On My Heart” - Whisper a Prayer
06 “Tracks Of My Tears” - Soul Classics
07 “Hate To Love” - Black Angel
08 “I Wish I’d Never Met You” w/Bobby Womack - If I Love U 2 Nite 12"
09 “I Should’ve Known Better” - South Of The River single
10 “Deep Afrika” - Contribution
11 “South of the River [Brixton Bass Mix]” - Contribution - B-sides & Remixes Mica Paris
12 “One World” - Contribution
13 “Contribution” - Contribution
14 “Baby Angel” - Black Angel
15 “Where Are The Children” - South Of The River single
16 “Stand Up” - Contribution - B-sides & Remixes
17 “Im Gonna Make You Love Me” - Soul Classics
18 “Hold On” - Born Again
19 “I Remember” - Born Again
20 “Tonight” - Born Again
21 “My One Temptation” - Born Again
22 “Nothing But The Truth” - Born Again

MILES DAVIS & JOHN COLTRANE / “Miles & Trane Mixtape”

Administrator — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:47:24 +0000

They took us somewhere else! Literally and imaginatively, made us see things that were not in front of us but which we could reach in our futures if we dared grasp all the implications and inspirations of their music.

As both men and musicians, Miles and Trane encouraged us to commit ourselves to newness, to move away from the old in order to get to previously unknown modes of existence.

For we humans, re-newing ourselves is generally not the easiest motion to make. But this force and brutal beauty pushed way beyond the ordinary. The music was brutal because in its birth it destroyed standards that came before, and was beauty because this music ushered us into another world, a wonderful world of glorious potentials—the very sounding of this new music was in its terribleness the sound of a new us being born.

This music did not stop with the notes Miles and Trane made with their horns but extended into us, into our being via the attitudes and behaviors we displayed after experiencing these songs.

Afterwards you could never climb back into the comfort of old ways. Your mind no longer fit inside older paradigms. Your brain was changed forever. You knew there was something different going on, and if you were hip you wanted to be where that difference was. Or even better, you wanted to shoot off in the direction that this new “different” indicated, which was where those in the know were headed—literally “out,” way out, a long, long ways from the status quo.

The year was 1960. Miles and Trane were no longer together as bandmates. But Miles knew something new happened when he played with Trane and, like the hipness he embodied, Miles fiercely wanted the highness of traveling the soundways with Trane.

Miles had a European tour to do and implored Trane to join Miles once more. Miles had a knack for being persuasive—he could convince a turnip to sign up and donate to the Red Cross blood bank.

So Trane climbs aboard for one last go round in March/April 1960. Back in the States most of us were still enamored with Kind Of Blue, astounded by Giant Steps. We thought we knew. But really we had no idea that Trane had turned into a rocket ship. Like starlight, by the time this sound-light reached us, it was old news.

The hip pride themselves on being on time, knowing what the latest was that was going down. But culturally, Europe was way ahead of America.

I postulate that World War II had culturally exhausted Europe, that the end of Colonialism via wars of independence had totally erased the Eurocentric sense of superiority not only on the battlefield but also in cultural spheres, and especially within the field of music.

Musically Europe sought sustenance in the black music known as jazz and visually in African aesthetics. (If you don’t believe me ask Picasso. Just look at his personal art collection, i.e. the art he held on to/sought out, the art he thought was hip.) The leading European artists and intellectuals did more than just like the music. They embraced jazz, supported the musicians and, fortunately for us, documented the music.

Slowly, over the last twenty years or so, jazz devotees have been tracking down, collecting and re-releasing recordings, TV and radio broadcasts, concert bootlegs, and private tapings of some of the most important music of the 20th century.

Recordings of the 1960 Miles European tour with John Coltrane are among the most important of these expressions but there are many, many others ranging from Sidney Bechet recordings, Duke Ellington concerts and other masterpieces from Traditional, Swing and Bebop artists, to the most iconoclastic recordings from the then emerging avant garde led by artists such as Cecil Taylor and the AACM crew out of Chicago (especially, but not exclusively, The Art Ensemble of Chicago).

Had these albums been issued in America shortly after they were recorded, there would have precipitated a huge shift in musical perceptions. But alas, it literally took decades for some of these momentous musical moments to get into general circulation. Jazz may have been created in America, but the music was sustained and documented by Europe. That’s the bold and cold truth.

Whether one focuses on the brilliance of Miles’ leadership and the sensitivity of his solos, or if you focus on the brilliance of Trane’s solos and his sensitivity in leading us into the future, either way there is a whole new world to hear and respond to in this music. In 1932 British author Aldous Huxley predicted that there would be a brave new world, but what Huxley could not have known is that the music would lead us far beyond the dystopia he imagined.

For the mixtape I’ve chosen excerpts from two concerts: Olympia in Paris, France and Stockholm, Sweden.

The Olympia tracks feature standards from the late fifties Miles Davis repertoire. The Stockhom tracks features two selections from the then recent Kind of Blue sessions.

In Paris you can hear how Trane shocked the French audience, many of them boisterously booing even before Trane finishes soloing on “Bye Bye Blackbird.” Adieu squares, the hip has arrived.

To be fair to those in attendance, a fair number of the French applauded Trane, although an unquiet throng booed vociferously. Coltrane’s solos clearly impressed some of them as a discordant jangle unrelated to what they knew as fifties jazz. And that was true, Trane was blowing what the sixties would soon sound like, not how the fifties previously sounded.

Undoubtedly a majority of the Paris jazz audience didn’t know what hit them. By today’s standards, Trane just sounds like Trane, not particularly disturbing, but, imagine back then, April 1960, this surge of sonic electricity must have jolted French sensibilities and cultural consciousness, sort of like getting musically tasered. Trane made it impossible for the audience to maintain their legendary sang-froid.

No doubt many of them were there to witness the latest jazz from America but they had no idea how radical some of the music they would hear would be. There was nothing previously available on commercial albums to prepare them for how this team of two, too-terrible men so thoroughly obliterated the old standards.

After the seductive opening notes of “All Of You” it didn’t take Miles long to display a more aggressive approach to the standard. Miles’ muted solo has an edge to it as he ushers in Trane who proceeds to destroy diatonic tonality.

First off, Trane is playing impossibly fast lines over the laid back rhythms. Doesn’t Trane know this is supposed to be a ballad? But then Trane really cranks it up and starts doing these jagged runs and splitting the notes with a harsh tone. He is politely applauded.

Pianist Wynton Kelly follows playing a swinging, blues-drenched solo that is more in keeping with what the people probably expected to hear. Kelly even drops in some block chords a la Red Garland. Jimmy Cobb is popping rim shots on the snare a la Philly Joe Jones. And the often overlooked hero of the rhythm section, Paul Chambers is maintaining time with the precision of a master Swiss watchmaker even as, at the same time, Mr. P.C. is a genius at finding appropriate bass notes to support whatever the horn men are doing. So for the moment order is restored. Nevertheless, I’m sure after this opening there was a palpable anticipation in the audience. They were waiting to hear what Trane would play next.

By the time we get to “Bye Bye Blackbird,” Trane is hotly waving goodbye as he jets out of the station, lighting out for uncharted territory. Some in the audience are thrilled, others are mortified. Either way, Trane was unforgettable.

In their book Clawing At The Limits Of Cool, Farah Jasmine Griffin and Salim Washington quote Trane talking about playing with Miles:

Miles’s music gave me an opportunity to see both sides of the question. It was simple and direct enough to superimpose chords—to stack them up—if you wanted, and if you wanted to play melodically, you could. I had mixed emotions about it. Sometimes I’d follow Miles’s lead and play lyrically; other times I’d say, “That’s the end of it,” and play the other way.
—John Coltrane

Obviously Trane had thought long and hard about what he wanted to do, where he wanted to go and how to get there, plus, he must have spent months (months, I say, and not mere hours or days) practicing to develop the facility to make the changes he wanted to make. There had been master technicians and brilliant instrumentalists before Trane arrived but after Trane arrived, all would be compared to Trane. Trane replaced Bird as the gold standard of saxophone technique.

And so it was to be for the rest of the short tour. Miles playing on the edge of the precipice, Trane plummeting the deep of the far regions, and the band swinging like a weather wane in a hurricane. Had these recordings been available back in late ‘60/early ’61, undoubtedly this would have been known as one of Miles’ great quintets.

But we didn’t know.

When I first heard some of these cuts, initially I was astounded and delighted, but afterwards I was ashamed of how ignorant I was. I was supposed to know better but I didn’t know this existed. And if I didn’t know this, then how hip was I, really?

I mean I knew the music was out there. I knew Trane was killing and that soon after a brief period of retrenchment with Hank Mobley in the frontline, Miles would jump aggressively to the front of the line with the formation that some claim as Miles’ greatest band (Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and the almighty Tony Williams), but I didn’t know there were recordings of Miles and Trane that marked the beginning of the wild and wonderful music that is the hallmark of sixties jazz.

Listening to the Stockholm selections we get an indication of the Miles to come and an earful of Trane in full flight. I am particularly appreciative of how relaxed Trane is, how he takes his time developing his iconoclastic solos. You can hear him move from idea to idea, even dropping some motifs that he would explore and develop more completely in the years ahead.

I think it is always important to know one’s history, to understand the paths that brought us to where we are. I admit it took me into the seventies before I really, really totally dug the history of all the music I then thought I was so hip for digging. I was into advanced Trane and Miles with Tony Williams, but I had no idea that there was a thrilling precedent. I saw them running but I had not seen them coming out of the blocks.

As I’ve said numerous times before, in jazz the sixties started in 1959. What I didn’t realize is that the early years had been so thoroughly documented. Thanks to a handful of recordings of the 1960 Miles with Trane European tour, I was able to catch up on what I had initially missed.

Now that the bulk of these recordings are widely available, we all can know. Doesn’t it feel good not to be ignorant?!!!

—Kalamu ya Salaam

Miles & Trane Mixtape Playlist

I’ve identified five albums from the Miles Davis 1960 European tour. They are: Olympia 1960 Live, Miles Davis In Stockholm 1960 Complete, In Copenhagen 1960, Live in Den Hagg, Live in Zurich. The Olympia recording is four CDs, two from the 1960 tour with Coltrane and two from an October 1960 tour with Sonny Stitt. In addition to the music, the Stockholm Complete is important because it contains a rare radio interview with Coltrane. The band is Miles Davis – trumpet, John Coltrane – tenor, Wynton Kelly – piano, Paul Chambers – bass, Jimmy Cobb – drums.

01 “All Of You” - Olympia 1960 Live
02 “On Green Dolphin Street” - Olympia 1960 Live
03 “Bye Bye Blackbird” - Olympia 1960 Live
04 “Round About Midnight” - Olympia 1960 Live

05 “So What” - Miles Davis In Stockholm 1960 Complete
06 “All Blues/The Theme” - Miles Davis In Stockholm 1960 Complete

November 2, 2009

Administrator — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 02:59:50 +0000

Let’s do church with Kirk Franklin—he’s black Baptist so we’re going to be there a minute. Then let’s do struggle with Massive Attack, Macy Gray, Grace Jones, Lamya, Jhelisa, Jean Grae, Ani DiFranco, Nina Simone, Meshell Ndegeocello, The Pretenders, and Erykah Badu. And let’s close out with Concha Buika and Chucho Valdes investigating the music of Chavela Vargas.

CONCHA BUIKA / “El Ultimo Trago Mixtape”

Administrator — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 02:59:18 +0000

I’ve explained before (here and here) that Concha Buika is one of my favorite singers. I’ve also looked at the problem of fame for a musician. How do you follow a hit? Do you make your next album like the last album or can you come up with something equally enchanting for the general public? In the process of producing new music what do you go for? Is there room to experiment?

Concha Buika you are a beast—and I mean that with total admiration.

El Ultimo Trago is a tribute album that is also a collaboration.

El Ultimo Trago is an ultimate triumph: as a tribute, as a collaboration and as a new release from a serious singer.

* * *

THE TRIBUTE

“Buika is my black daughter. She has the most amazing and personal voice I have heard in many years.”
—Chavela Vargas

The honored artist is Chavela Vargas. Here is a bio taken from the the glbtq website (an encyclopedia of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, & queer culture).

Acclaimed Costa Rican-Mexican performer and singer Chavela Vargas became notorious for the eroticism of her performances and for her open expression of lesbian desire.

Vargas was born Isabel ("Chavela") Vargas Lizano to Herminia Lizano and Francisco Vargas on April 19, 1919 in the province of Santa Bárbara de Heredia, Costa Rica, which is nestled between Nicaragua and Panama.

She grew up in Mexico, in exile, where she associated with leading intellectuals such as Frida Kahlo, with whom she had an affair, Diego Rivera, Agustín Lara, and Juan Rulfo, and even befriended political leaders such as Luis Echeverría, who served as President of Mexico from 1970 to 1976.

Vargas’s career as a singer commenced in the mid 1950s, under the direction of José Alfredo Jiménez, her producer. Her first recording came a decade later in 1961.

Vargas became famous in the mid-1960s for her hallmark interpretations, frequently melodramatic and heart-wrenching, of sentimental Mexican songs. The originality of her style and the deep pain she was able to communicate marked her as a singular talent.

At the same time, however, she became infamous for her outlandish behavior, which violated a number of Mexican taboos. Not only did she wear trousers and dress as a man, but she also smoked cigars, carried a gun in her pocket, and sported a red poncho in her celebration and vindication of folklore.

A crucial element of her radical performance art was her seduction of women in the audience and her singing rancheras written to be sung by a man to a woman.

Vargas has come to be known as "the woman with the red poncho," as the Spanish singer Joaquín Sabina dubbed her, as well as "the queen of Mexican song." She shares this latter accolade with Mexico’s greatest popular singers: Lola Beltrán, Angélica María, Juan Gabriel, Lucha Reyes, and Rocío Durcal.

For those intimately acquainted with her performances Vargas is known simply as "La Doña" or "La Chabela." These epithets are signs of respect and reverence, which are extended to her despite her "black legend," which included a devastating bout with alcoholism as well as overt lesbianism.

Vargas’ life has been dedicated to ritual performance that transgresses social, gender, and cultural borders through song. Perhaps because she was afflicted with illness in childhood–including polio and blindness that she declares were cured by shamans–she claims that she shares the stage with her own gods.

Through her long life, she has expressed a bold faith in spirituality and artistic expression–a faith that she has relied upon time and time again, especially when she has been labeled "other," "queer," and "strange."

After gaining fame in the 1960s, Vargas fell into alcoholism in the 1970s. She retreated from the public sphere for about twelve years. She attempted comebacks with only modest success, though she did sing in local cabarets, especially those frequented by gay men, who continue to constitute a large fraction of her admirers.

In 1981, however, she made a major comeback with stellar performances in the Olympia Theatre of Paris, Carnegie Hall in New York, the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico, and the Palau de la Música in Barcelona.

In the early 1990s she experienced another revival. Gay filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar helped bring her a new audience by incorporating her bold, expressive, and seductive music into his films.

Vargas has recorded over eighty albums. Among her most notable and cherished titles and interpretations are "Macorina," "La China," "La Llorona," "Luz De Luna," "Toda Una Vida," "Corazón Corazón," "Quisiera Amarte Menos," and "Volver Volver."

In November of 2000, the President of the Spanish government presented Vargas with "la Cruz de la Orden Isabel Católica," one of the most prestigious awards for artistic production.

This award, the singer declares, is a testament to her vexed legacy, one that includes her unapologetic persona and creative lesbian aesthetic.

Given Concha Buika’s bold bisexuality as well as Concha’s musical adventurousness, Concha’s embracing of the legacy and artistry of Chavela Vargas is not only unsurprising, but also from a psychological perspective, the respect and admiration Concha accords to Chavela Vargas seems inevitable. How could Concha not be influenced and enthralled by Chavela?

Especially, if we listen to Chavela’s approach to singing, we clearly hear a seminal precursor to Concha. In the jukebox I’ve included two tracks from Chavela’s triumphant 2003 Carnegie Hall debut concert when Chavela was 83. Both “Se Me Hizo Facil” and “Un Mundo Raro” are covered by Concha Buika.

Although society is more open in the 21st century than in the mid-20th century, we should not ignore the struggle that queer artists have within industries and professions dominated by patriarchy, Christian and Islamic orthodoxies, and highly resistant strains of homophobia.

With regard to accepting themselves and facing the world, both Chavela and Concha are proud warriors.

I’ve had to fight to be myself and to be respected. I’m proud to carry this stigma and call myself a lesbian. I don’t boast about it or broadcast it, but I don’t deny it. I’ve had to confront society and the Church, which says that homosexuals are damned. That’s absurd. How can someone who’s born like this be judged?

I didn’t attend lesbian classes. No one taught me to be this way. I was born this way, from the moment I opened my eyes in this world. I’ve never been to bed with a man. Never. That’s how pure I am; I have nothing to be ashamed of. My gods made me the way I am.
—Chavela Vargas

While she was married to the father of her 8-year-old son, Buika fell in love with a woman and arranged for the three of them to marry. She shrugs off the idea that there is anything strange in this, or in talking about it openly.

“I do what I do, and I’m not doing anything that other human beings haven’t done. All human beings are more or less the same. A lot of people don’t dare do things, but they think about them. People hide something bad. I haven’t done anything bad, so I don’t have any reason to hide it. What rule is there that two people can’t love a third person?'’
—from Unconventional, and unashamed: Spain’s Concha Buika uses music to focus her capricious mind

COLLABORATION

The fabled Cuban band leader, pianist and composer Chucho Valdes is note perfect in his role as the principal musician. He deftly guides the music in both its dramatic arrangements and its extraordinarily righteous rhythms.

Listen closely to Chucho’s touch. When he is accompanying, he expertly frames Concha’s voice both supporting her flights as well as anticipating the expressive turns of her phrasing and dynamics. When he solos he swings with a subtle aggressiveness—sometimes he commands the whole keyboard with intricate chordal passages, other times he carves out ultra-attractive melodic lines. There are years and years of tasteful playing evident as his fingers massage the ivories.

Chucho clearly understands the music and plays the compositions as though he composed them or at least played them since birth. But, for me, what really distinguishes what Chucho does is his prowess as a jazz pianist. His improvisations are both inventive and sophisticated.

On top of all of Chucho’s masterful work is the intangible element of love that evidences itself throughout these recordings and elevates the music to the realm of the sublime. From the photos of them together and from the resulting music they make in collaboration, there is obviously great admiration and affection between pianist Chucho and vocalist Concha.

A SONIC DEVELOPMENT

I feared for this new album. What would Concha do next? Would she take a risk or play it safe? Has she composed new music or perhaps found a creative youthful producer to come up with something innovative? What she has done is what all great musicians must do: Concha has dug up one of her musical roots and paid homage to significant elements of her aural origins.

Concha is music: everything there is to know about her is presented in performance. All of her: the facts and the fantasies, the scars and the beauty marks, the ecstasies and the depressions, the idiosyncrasies and the worldview. All is in the music, every song is an emotional autobiography, if not an aural diary.

Plus, Concha is both fearless in facing herself and her audience. She is utterly frank, sometimes even discomforting in how her nakedness makes us feel that much of what we wear is not mainly, or even solely, for protection but rather for concealment, for camouflage, or worse of all, for masquerade. Like all great artists, when we regard Concha, her expressions, her existence ultimately force us to consider (and reconsider) ourselves.

This album of old, sentimental romance songs is the exact opposite of nostalgia—rather than revel in the past, we are encouraged to consider the present, to think about what we can do with whatever are the elements of our own histories. The music is wonderful but Chucho and Concha’s modern interpretations make everything mo’ betta than it would be if they simply tried to recapture a bygone era.

Trago is based on more than simply Concha Buika’s ideological and experiential affinity for Chevela Vargas’ life and music. This is also a sterling jazz album—the arrangements are gems and, the musical execution is superb. There is nothing flashy even though there is an undeniable flair of the dramatic in Concha’s interpretations.

Near stereotypical Latin fire permeates each song, but, though they could easily have veered off into hackneyed melodrama, Concha reins in her penchant for power singing, no doubt guided by Chucho’s tendency for understatement. Like drinking two glasses of a chilled Sherry, the potency of the music sneaks up on you. Instead of being awed by fireworks, we are seduced by caresses. This is quietly awesome music.

I’m the totally impressed dinner guest, so impressed that before I have finished this meal, I am already craving more, already trying to decide what I want to request for the next meal—my complements to both chefs.

Concha, allow me a small conceit, please. If it’s not asking too much, would it be possible to have a live album next that covers the range of your musical tastes?

—Kalamu ya Salaam

Concha Buika Trago Playlist

All tracks are from Concha’s new album, El Ultimo Trago featuring Chucho Valdes. The succinct album has twelve tracks of songs associated with Chavela Vargas. A few selections are duets with Concha and Chucho, other tracks are trio and voice arrangements, and some have an added ingredient such as trumpet or guitar soloist, or a backing chorus. It is both well conceived and expertly achieved as both a tribute album and a contemporary expression.

01 “Sombras”
02 “Las Ciudades”
03 “El Andariego”
04 “Se Me Hizo Facil”
05 “Un Mundo Raro”
06 “Somos”

The two closing selections by Chavela Vargas are from Chavela at Carnegie Hall.
07 “Se Me Hizo Facil”
08 “Un Mundo Raro”