Continuing to follow up on some albums I missed last year, I should mention Jim Noir’s Tower of Love.
Sweet and fizzy. Sounds real good in a playlist along with some Byrds, Donovan and Terry Jacks, whom I’ve rediscovered, by the way. His songs are simplistic but the arrangements are so deliciously bubbly.
So forget all your troubles and travel back in time to a mythical age, around 1970.
I can only claim to have some small appreciation for classical flamenco. Once I happened to see the dancer Joaquin Encinias perform1. I’ve never seen more grace, not even in Olympic athletes. It takes passionate music to back dancing like that, and Santa Cruz’ local flamenco musicians did well providing it. They call this soulful magic duende. (I’m sorry to say that Paco de Lucia’s ensemble, whom I saw a few days later, has not a bit of duende, and produces nothing but virtuosic elevator music in comparison.)
That said, I love me some kickin’ world-fusion-hip-hop-funk-jazz-flamenco.
I’ve known the Songhai albums (flamenco/kora fusion), Benjamin Escoriza and Radio Tarifa (medieval and Middle Eastern flavored flamenco) for a long time, but I can’t believe I didn’t know about Ojos de Brujo until recently. They mix Afro-Cuban, hip-hop, and Indian elements with flamenco. ¡Que sabroso! I would have included their latest album in my top picks of 2006 if I’d known.
Not in the same league, but very enjoyable: El Puchero del Hortelano offer their albums as free downloads, and Maui y Los Sirenidos play relaxing flamenco-flavored stuff as well.
I just hope that these groups manage to preserve that bit of duende that makes it all work.
1I was compelled to write a poem about Joaquin’s dancing. If I get the nerve I’ll post it at some point. Encouragement could make a difference.
There’s an old fairy tale about a poor woman whose husband rescued a magic flounder (actually an enchanted prince). The woman forced her husband to demand a reward from the flounder. The flounder granted her wish, but she wasn’t satisfied. She made a series of escalating demands. At first, she just wanted to be rich. Then she wanted to be a duchess, then a queen, and so on, until she demanded to be ruler of the earth, the sun, the moon and the stars.
Finally, the flounder got fed up. He raised a storm and through its din, he shouted that the woman would have no more, as her greed and vanity were insatiable. He took back all the power and riches he had granted, and left her a poor fisherman’s wife once again.
When will we get fed up and raise a storm? Bush unilaterally declares the right to read your mail; wasn’t warrantless wiretapping enough? Why haven’t we impeached him already? Why haven’t we told him he can’t be ruler of the earth, the sun, the moon and the stars?
How great is this? All right, now anyone who has said they’d like to learn Spanish (or French, Russian, Chinese or Japanese) has no excuse. ¡Ándale! Learn a language with podcasts - Lifehacker
