Giant Donut Discs ® – July 2012
11. 7. 2012 | Rubriky: Articles,Giant Donut Discs
[by Ken Hunt, London] Another month with varying degrees of noise and loads of work-related choices. This month summons Jackson Browne, Mehdi Hassan, Jefferson Airplane, James ‘Iron Head’ Baker, The Radiators from Space, Neil Young, Sam Lee, Rokia Traoré, Country Joe & The Fish and back to Jackson Browne to do their bit to keep a freelance music writer sane.
Running On Empty – Jackson Browne
You know what it’s like when you seek solace in music? This month this one hit home mainly on account of those miles rushing by under the wheels and exhaustion – and most important of all because Jackson Browne and his magnificent seven lift the spirits.
Let’s hear it for David Lindley (guitar and lap steel), Russell Kunkel (drums), Leland Sklar (bass), Craig Doerge (keyboards), Danny Kortchmar (guitars) and, on vocals, Doug Haywood and Rosemary Butler. From Running On Empty (Elektra/Rhino8122-78283-2, 2005)
Gulon mein rang bhare – Mehdi Hassan
The Pakistani vocalist Mehdi Hassan (1927-2012) recorded hundreds upon hundreds of songs but above others, Gulon mein rang bhare (“Let the blossoms fill with colour”) became his signature song. The poem itself was from the pen of the left-wing poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz (1911-1984). One of Mehdi Hassan’s older brothers, Ghulam Qadir set the poem to music, choosing raga Jhinjhoti as its vehicle of transportation. It is a perfect example of the magical connection that can occur between lyricist, composer and interpreter.
The first of two CDs that come with Asif Noorani’s biography includes this rendition, recorded in concert. Sheer joy. The book implies that this is a recording made at EMI (Pakistan)’s Lahore studio in 1976. (Sometimes these things aren’t clear.) There is a real atmosphere to this recording of one of Mehdi Hassan’s signature pieces. Contained within Asif Noorani’s book Mehdi Hasan:The Man and His Music (Liberty Books, Pakistan, ISBN 978-969-9502-00-2, 2010)
Ken Hunt’s obituary of Mehdi Hassan from the Independent of 16 June 2012 is at http ://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/mehdi-hassan-musician-hailed-as-the-maestro-of-the-ghazal-7855063.html
Ishtiaq Ahmed’s tribute to him from Pakistan’s Daily Times of 17 June 2012 is at http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2012%5C06%5C17%5Cst ory_17-6-2012_pg3_3
For illuminations about Gulon mein rang bhare itself, visit http://urdustuff.blogspot.co.uk (and then track to 2007/04/faiz-gulon-mein-rang-bhare). Highly recommended. Deewaan, its blogger, does not re-poeticise Faiz’s ghazal. (No idea who Deewaan is.) The blog offers explanations of what is going on and going down.
Pretty As You Feel – Jefferson Airplane
This version of the song is the 45 rpm single edit. Recorded in sessions over December 1970 and January 1971 (the CD set’s booklet’s notes tell us), it has a similar sound quality to David Crosby’s If Only I Could Remember My Own Name.
Joey Covington sings lead. Grace Slick and Paul Kantner contribute backing vocals. Jack Casady is on electric bass. Jorma Kaukonen plays electric guitar. And Papa John Creach plays violin. In addition to those members of the Airplane, the performance has Carlos Santana on electric guitar and Michael Shrieve on kit drums. There was something about its atmosphere that felt just right this month… From Jefferson Airplane Loves You (RCA 02863 61110-2, 1992)
My Yellow Gal – James ‘Iron Head’ Baker with vocal accompaniments
This particular recording was made at Central State Prison Farm in Texas in December 1933 at the end of a collecting trip that John A Lomax (1867-1948) and his son Alan Lomax (1915-2002) made between July and December of that year. Baker sings with R D Allen and Will Crosby singing back-ups. It is a prison lament, a memory of loss, a multiracial memory from, hands down, easily the month’s most played CD.
When the Lomaxes recorded these prisoners, surely the My Yellow Gal singers could never have imagined in their wildst dreams that people would still be listening to their voices so many years later. The anthology from which this is taken was compiled and annotated by Mark Allan Jackson, the author of Prophet Singer: The Voice and Vision of Woody Guthrie (University Press of Mississippi, 2008) – a book I have never seen. From Jail House Bound – John Lomax’s First Southern Prison Recordings, 1933 (West Virginia University Press/Global Jukebox WVU GJ1012, 2012)
www.wvupress.com and www.globaljukeboxrecords.com
Morning Dew – The Radiators from Space
This interpretation of Bonnie Dobson’s song – I refuse to add another name to the credits – derives from the arrangement that the Irish band Sugar Shack came up with in 1968.
The Rads are Johnny Bonnie (drums and percussion), Philip Chevron (vocals, guitars and more), Pete Holidai (vocals, lead guitar, keyboards and more), Steve Rapid (vocals, synth) and Enda Wyatt (bass). Anita Bonnie adds backing vocals on this particular track.
A glorious throw-back of a track from an album that flaunts The Radiators from Space’s Irish credentials, past and present. From Sound City Beat (Chiswick CWK 3022, 2012)
God Save The Queen – Neil Young with Crazy Horse
The best part of the diamond wotsit ‘celebrations’ was listening to this as a balance and cultural assault from the Dominions. The segue into My Country ‘Tis Of Thee is special. From Americana (Reprise 9362-49508-5, 2012)
My Ausheen My Old Shoes – Sam Lee
This is the final track from the debut album of the London-based singer of traditional songs Sam Lee. This particular song is a Scots Traveller morsel that he gleaned from Stanley Robinson (1940-2009). It is delivered as an aural collage, one that includes Jane Turriff singing What Can A Young Lassie Dae Wi An Auld Man? (“What can a young girl do with an old man?”) to piano accompaniment (recorded by Bill Leader and courtesy of Topic Records), some swifts calling in aerial ballet (or aerial, little-swift-making naughtiness) and a recording of a half-muffled peal of bells from Bisley. And then there is the music… Oh, the music! He multi-tracks vocals and plays a little shruti box drone while Gerry Diver adds piano, fiddle and auto-harp.
In an unpublished interview with me that we did in May 2012, Sam Lee spoke of Stanley Robertson: “I think what Stan represented for me was a sense… I’ll start again. I’ll start with a quote I’ve only recently come across. You picked up on it in my email, the Mahler quote about tending the flame. I think what Stanley represented was that there were fires out there burning and this was a living tradition and not a dead and revived or re-enacted musical form. Not to take away from the beauty of it, this music was intrinsically related to a certain group of people and that as much as I had seen music really on a living basis in the hands of a privileged few living a comfortable and modern lifestyle.”
Sam Lee is a singer with a true clarity of vision with a gift for communicating the living fire of traditional music – cold and heated fire both. From Ground of its Own (TNCR001CD, 2012)
Ken Hunt’s obituary ‘Stanley Robertson: Storyteller and folk singer who chronicled Scots Traveller history’ from The Independent of 25 November 2009 is at http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/stanley-robertson-storyteller-and-folk-singer-who-chronicled-scots-traveller-history-1826875.html
Dounia – Rokia Traoré
“Chaque aurore annonce un nouveau jour…” – “each dawn announces a new day” – is how this song begins. Once upon a time, many years ago, David Harrington of the Kronos Quartet asked what I thought of Rokia Traoré and I simply answered that she was fab. I get little chance to listen to music from Africa nowadays because I am focussed elsewhere musically. This Malian vocalist-composer is one of those musicians that I cannot imagine ever wishing to give up following, however. She represents a spirit of adventure and danger. From Tchamantché (Nonesuch 7559-79934-5, 2008)
Janis – Country Joe & The Fish (“Orchestra conducted by Country Joe”)
This is one of the surprises that John Crosby’s luscious 4-CD boxed set documenting the roots history of the US-based Vanguard Records label springs upon listeners. It is an instrumental version of the Joe McDonald song about Janis Joplin released on a Vanguard single in 1967. Can’t recall ever hearing about the single before, unless it was from John Crosby himself back in the day when he was compiling the set. (In which case I have forgotten that conversation.) From Make it your sound, make it your scene – Vanguard Records & the 1960s musical revolution (Vanguard VANBOX 14, 2012)
The image is from Ace Records’ Right Track (June 2012): www.acerecords.co.uk/
Stay – Jackson Browne
The concluding track from the album that kicked off this month’s selections. It was first released in 1977 and the vocal combination of Rosemary Butler and David Lindley on falsetto still brings a smile to my face. From Running On Empty (Elektra/Rhino8122-78283-2, 2005)
The copyright of all images lies with the respective photographers, companies and image-makers.