Archive Page 2
Starting off with 1song/day today.
Genre: Mexican
Language: Spanish
From my CD: Music from the Chocolate Lands (Putumayo)
From liner notes:
The song calls for solidarity with the people of El Salvador and end to outside intervention in the country.
… blends Mexican elements, including the use of the requinto (a type of guitar), violin and other traditional instruments with a laidback tango flavor.
My take: An enjoyable song. Very danceable and you can either pull off your Latin ballroom dance steps, or strut your modern street dance moves. It actually seems like you are listening to something old, but wait … not really. An interesting blend of old and new. Then the lyrics – hey, this is controversial stuff. Who would've thought?
Lyrics in Spanish:
Desde las malvinas hasta la
(..?mis ojos. ambos medisanos en lucha y cancion)
Salvadoreno pequeno gigante senala a todos aqui no sera
Es salvadoreno pequeno gigante
senala a todos aqui no sera
Aqui no sera facil ocacion
Aqui no sera tan solo un pedral
lamer y cantera no permitira
otra intervencion en el salvador
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Sarasa :: Susheela Raman
English translation:
Be my salvation
You who are without equal in the arts of rule:
Persuasion, Giving, Dividing your enemies
And destroying them
How could the demon Ravana, Shiva’s devotee, so underestimate you?
When he kidnapped your beloved You tenderly entreated him
Through the monkey god
And even offered him the kingdom of Ayodhya
In return for her
Then you won over his brother
And made him king instead
But when Ravana still insisted
You destroyed him and all his kind
Sarasa (Tyagaraja) Traditional, arranged by Susheela Raman, Sam Mills, Djanuno Dabo
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"Our music is possible because we are possible" – Silvia Calado Olivo of Ojos de Brujo, Madrid, November 2002
Ojos de Brujo. ODB. (insert fanatic scream lasting about ten whole seconds here)
I don’t have any of their albums (yet), but I was an instant fan. I think this group is absolutely brilliant!
Translated as “Eyes of the Warlock,” Ojos de Brujo is a collective of young (and radical) Spanish musicians based in Barcelona. They use flamenco as a foundation for their cross-genre experimentation – infusing elements of hip-hop, funk, salsa, and reggae. Then throw in some electronica and Barcelona street sounds too. Sound impossible? Listen here and tell me that it doesn’t work. Because it DOES work, and surprisingly well.
They’re called noveau flamenco by some. But ODB calls their brand of music "Jip Jop Flamenkillo" which they claim is “a sound that catapults flamenco into the 21st century without losing any of the power or passion of the music's roots.”
Oh so true. There is a dynamism there – the intricate guitarwork, the percussions, the impassioned vocals – so infectious that you want to jump up and dance! Or at the least, sing along! When I first downloaded Tiempo de Solea, I couldn’t get enough of it and played it for at least five times straight. In our iPOD, it got its major long play treatment in the car when we were stuck in horrendous traffic to watch New Year fireworks. It’s pretty difficult to remain crabby for 3 hours when you hear ODB!
I’ve been semi-singing-humming the song Tiempo de Solea for a few days, and Dui has been going “tio-tio VAN, tio-tio VAN VAN VAN” during her morning showers too that its becoming silly!
As in all my dabblings in world music, I got my first taste of Ojos de Brujo from Putumayo. Vacileo (“A Good Time”) is a danceable song that has strong Latin flavors and declares that: “Oh, I am cured by rumba / That’s how I have a good time …”
Tesoro (“Treasure”), meanwhile, is slower and quite subdued in comparison. It has romantic introductory guitarwork. The lyrics are quite bizarre (“Your face is a fish when you have fun” – err, romantic?) and incorporates local slang (“Donderei donerara”). These aside, you could fall in love to this song. Hubby and I dance this sometimes during our “feeling Latin dancers” moods.
As a sidebar, Ojos de Brujo has a grassroots and anti-corporate philosophy. While the music is in the forefront, ODB is not merely about music. They are a loose collective of various artists – graffiti, multimedia, designers, filmers, among others. "I don't want to say we belong to a political party," says Xavi, the group’s percussionist. "We don't like those kind of associations. We do believe in doing things for ourselves, in controlling our own productions, in being free and having a social commitment, trying to do something to make this a better world… and in this sense we maybe also a little political, since politics are also social." In fact, they released their album overseas through their own production company, La Fábrica de Colores (now Diquela Records).
So it’s no wonder then that in my quest to own my own ODB record, I have come up dry. I have found nada in all the music bars here in the Philippines. So I have had to settle for the smattering of songs in the Putumayo albums.
It seems that ODB is making waves in the UK market, generating an almost fanatical bunch of groupies. Makes me wonder if I may be a lone fan in the Philippines. I hope not, because if you have a full ODB album, I would probably scratch your eyes out to at least borrow it!
My next project is to learn some more Spanish so I can at least sing along to them and not feel like an oaf.
Mini-research from:
Ojos de Brujo website
Calabash Music
Liner notes of Putumayo Presents Rumba Flamenco
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… Is it merely the rhythm of the words, the cadence of falling notes that floods me with longing, calling to me?
Does rhythm have memory, can it travel through time and make the old forever new? Can it tell us of other nights, caress us? Does it have a feeling, to make us dance alive in our skin?” – Susana Baca, in her introduction to her self-titled album
I immediately fell in love with her voice – a beguiling voice with a plaintiveness, expressiveness, soulfulness that comes only with a deep attachment to what she is singing.
Heard two of her songs on two separate Putumayo albums, I didn’t immediately recognize that the same voice sang two of my favorites – Maria Lando and Valentin – until I sat down to read the liner notes.
Maria Lando got Susana noticed. She appeared in the 1955 Luaka Bop album “The Black Soul of Peru” produced by David Byrne. The song is a lando, a mournful Afro-Peruvian rhythm that’s a cross between the samba and cha cha. Susana’s voice aptly captures the “sufferation” of a working woman in the big city.
Valentin, meanwhile, is an Afro-Peruvian classic. Sung from the point of view of a man about to fight Valentin, he complains because his foe is armed with a stick.
These two songs led me to search for her albums and I finally decided upon her self-titled album. (Well, there were only two albums available, wasn’t really a tough choice! And I have put the other in my “must buys.”)
The album is a beautiful selection of traditional (Molino Molero, Zamba Malato, Enciendete Candela), ballads (Negra Presuntuosa, Heces, Tu Mirada y Mi Voz), and even the pasyon-like song Señor de los Milagros. The themes are varied yet are very Filipino! Quite a few deal with love – a hidden love, unrequited love! You can’t get bored, wondering what’s next in her line-up.
But behind the voice is an activist at heart. Recognized as one of the greatest divas in South America, Susana is a dedicated researcher, working tirelessly to revive many forms of Afro-Peruvian folklore (song and dance). She and her husband have set up a cultural center and school dedicated to preserving Afro-Peruvian traditions.
“Our greatest challenge is to find the one true rhythm of freedom – something like the wind that allows a bird to fly, or a new language more powerful than speech, that holds you.”
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Algo de mi se ha perdido
Entre tu casa y mi casa
Ser el calor que no abrasa
No es de gozo
No es de ira
Como tampoco es mentira
Que algo de ti se ha escondido
Entre tu calle y mi alma
Sera tal vez la esperanza
De un carino adormecido
Yo sabre reir
Yo sabre llorar
Yo sabre entregarte mi carino
Negra
Negra que te quiero
Goza
Negra presentuosa
Mira
Que me estoy muriendo
Dame
Vida de tu boca
Bota
Que me est pisando
Los talones de la libertad
English:
Something of mine is lost
Between your house and mine
It’s the heat that doesn’t singe
Not from joy
Not from anger
Nor is it a lie
That something of yours is
Hidden
Between your street and my soul
Maybe it’s the hope
Of a sleepy love
I’ll know how to laugh
I’ll know how to cry
I’ll know how to give you
My love
Black girl
Black girl, I love you
Enjoy
Pretentious black girl
Look
I’m dying
Give me
Life from your mouth
Your freedom’s
Heels
Are crushing me
Note from the artist based on www.wowlyrics.com:
“Negra Presuntuosa” is how we refer to young black girls who, in the fullness of youth, make weapons of seduction and the power of flirtatiousness.
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Rodeá de tanta gente y yo me siento tan sola
Mi corazón es como una bomba pum pum!!! Una bomba
De relojería fina a punto de estallar
Extranjera y con papela caducá
No hay son ni guaguancó que me consuele
El tiempo es de soleá y a mi me duele
Voy por la calle y escuchando los quejíos
El futuro en cada esquina pende de un hilo
Y entre apretones de manos se juegan el destino
De la tierra y de los seres que en ella vivimos
No conocen el respeto, les sigue un oscuro sino
Con lo linda que es la vida!! En que la habéis convertío!!!
La situación tiene danger, mucho danger
Siempre prisa por llegar a ninguna parte
La situación tiene danger, mucho danger, mucho danger!!!
Por la calle balas perdías, ¡críos y crías van!
Equilibrio en la cuerda floja, ¡se me para la vida!
De ver tanto sufrimiento, de ver tanto delirio
A mi me quita el sentío, voy con el pecho partío
No hay son ni guaguancó que me consuele
El tiempo es de soleá y a mi me duele
Voy por la calle y escuchando los quejíos
El futuro en cada esquina pende de un hilo…
Detrás de las cuatro paredes por el callejón de atrás
Soleás y martinetes las cartas están marcás
Detrás de las cuatro paredes por el callejón de atrás
Tiros y tiros van!! Tiros y tiros van!! Van!!
Aquí un poquillo de jiphip flamenquillo
Pa toas las quillas, pa tós los quillos
Aquí un poquillo de jiphop flamenquillo
Pa que te metas por la vena cosa rica chica sí!!!
English:
So many people all around me and I feel so alone
my heart is like a bomb, boom boom!!! a fine
time bomb
ready to explode
a foreigner with her papers out of date
There’s no son or guaguancó can console me
the time is soleá and it hurts me
I walk down the street listening to the moans
the future on every corner hanging by a thread
And in between handshakes they gamble the destiny
of the earth and all the beings living on it
they don’t know respect, they’re pursued by a dark fate but
when life is so beautiful!!! what have you done to it?
There’s danger in the situation, too much danger
always racing to get nowhere
there’s danger in the situation, too much danger, too much danger
On the street stray bullets, girls and boys go by!
balance on the tightrope, my life stops dead!
from seeing so much suffering, from seeing so much madness
it robs all the meaning, I’m going around with a broken heart
There’s no son or guaguancó can console me
the time is soleá and it hurts me
I walk down the street listening to the sorrow
the future on every corner hanging by a thread
Behind the four walls in the alley at the back
soleás and martinetes the cards are marked
behind the four walls in the alley at the back
shot after shot they go!!! shot after shot they go!!! they go!!!
Here’s a little bit of flamenco hip-hop
for all the gals, for all the guys
here’s a little bit of flamenco hip-hop
for you to get something sweet in your vein, girl, yes!!!
Sample songs on this album (c.o. CalabashMusic)
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With a growing obssession for the non-mainstream, I've graduated from simply selecting from the Putumayo section to scouring the shelves for specific artists. Favorites among the favorites, the creme dela creme.
One song is Sarasa from Putumayo's Music from the Chocolate Lands. Without a clue what the song was about (as it is all in Tamil), the melody is obviously Indian inspired. The voice has a distinct Indian “curlicue” that conjures up images of gold clad dancers, hands in namaste position, heads moving side to side.
I find myself singing along, picking up Indian words quite unconsciously. Now you can’t go around singing something without at least having vague idea of what you are saying! The song is adapted from a traditional devotional chant:
Be my salvation
You are without equal in the arts of rule:
Persuasion, Giving, Dividing your Enemies and destroying them
That caressing voice behind it is by Indian-born, UK-based Susheela Raman. An award-winning artist, she has a multicultural band with a combination of Indian and African influences.
Snatched up her only available album (one of two copies) in my latest trip to the music bar. Recalled being a tad disappointed seeing the title Love Trap – a sure sign of selling out and a commercial ploy! And all the lyrics in the liner notes were in English! But with Sarasa in the line-up, I marched to the listening section and was relieved to hear majority of the songs in Indian, with the same haunting quality of Sarasa.
Though the two English songs were somewhat cheesy attempts to appeal to a larger audience, Susheela is able to pull it off stellar-ly in her characteristic style. Not to say that songs (Love Trap and Save Me) weren’t good, on the contrary, as they are both really good 70s songs.
She's been alternately described as being raga-blues, Tamil-rock … Don't yet have any deep profound thoughts on her brand of music, but I definitely enjoy it!
Not at all disappointed in the buy. I would think her first album Salt Rain may have that untainted quality of non-commercial yet breakthrough debut albums seem to have. Will have to look up her third album Crocodile Songs which she claims to be her best album yet. Can’t wait to find out!
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let’s get this rolling….
you may want to try this great site called CalabashMusic.com. it gives a good overview of how vast the world of global music is, and will make both the dabblers and the serious 'uns happy. so what's a calabash you say? It's a bottle gourd. looky there in the graphic. now, what that gourd has to do with music is beyond me (i go to the site to download …)
here's what's there:
- a free single every week. yay, free, yes free MP3. not a short clip. not a low quality version. it's a full-length song of a world music artist. you can actually build your collection from this site! especially great if you need to fill up all that space on your ipod!
- a cd and dvd store. not content with downloading all those freebies, you can buy full albums and dvds.
- everything's sorted out by region … so you can travel the world in music!
go on, give it a go! nothing ventured, nothing lost. i think i got that cliche all wrong.
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