We broke up in the winter – we met in the spring!
According to tradition – at the beginning something from the history of electronic music. This time it’s a track created by a French duo called Air. These three letters – a – i – r – represent air in English, but it turns out that everything is not so simple – in this case, it is an abbreviation of the first letters of three words in French: love, imagination and dream. Nicolas Godin, one of the members of the duo, explained this in an interview with the BBC in 2022. But back in 1998, during a meeting with journalists in Australia, he contested such an explanation, saying – yes, it’s a good idea – why didn’t it occur to me myself…
But the name is not the main thing – the main thing is the music. It is interesting that both members of the duo – Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoit Dunkel – are not musicians at all by education: one studied architecture, the other – mathematics. The group, founded in 1995, is still active today. Often performing together with various guest musicians, the repertoire also includes singable compositions performed not in French, but in English. Music reviewers describe the music created by the duo as a neat cocktail of Vangelis, Jean-Michel Jarre, Pink Floyd, Tangerine Dream and even Serge Gainsbourg… The song plays Silver woman.
Even if you could still see a delayed snowflake somewhere this week, inevitably – like every year – spring is here. And in 2003, the queen of modern fado music also sang about spring Mariza – the best singer of this genre from Portugal after Amalia Rodrigues. Mariza has also practiced her voice several times in the climate of Latvia – it is certain that our spring is quite different from this time of year in Portugal, but the language of music goes beyond borders. The album, which contained a song about spring, was the second for Mariza. At home it earned quadruple platinum status, Mariza’s name appeared Billboard world music polls and music reviewers announced in one voice that a singer has finally appeared who has broken the ingrained canons of fada music – that is, to sing only about endless sadness… We are listening to a song from Mariza Primavera.
Also a colorful American jazz diva Diane Reeves is no stranger to our concertgoers, and in 2003 she sang something in the spring mood – it’s the popular song about a lark by Johnny Mercer and Hoagie Carmichael – Cloud sheet, which was recorded for the first time in 1941 by drummer Gene Krupa’s orchestra with soloist Anita O’Day. The song took an incredibly long time by the standards of the time. The cause was not to be found in artistic pursuits. Carmichael asks Mercer to write the words, Mercer agrees, just asks to send the sheet music. Carmichael is sure he has already done it. Then Mercer reminded, the composer forgot again, and so it went on for a year…
If any man faithfully follows his chosen path in music, it is the former band Dire Straits leader Marks Noflers. Immediately – on April 12 – it is expected that the admirers of his talent will get a new studio album of his – already the tenth – called One Deep River. In the meantime, a few singles have already been released – a usual publicity stunt to convince that at least some songs are worth the money to release, but in the case of Mark Knopfler it is completely unnecessary – it is not heard that he has disappointed anyone. Both the sound of the guitar and the voice in the first of the twelve songs of the new album are immediately familiar – Two Pairs Of Hands.
Another team of musicians from British soil doesn’t really change anything in their style – Simply Red. Simple and tasteful – both in the quality performance and communication with the audience, as well as, of course, in the music itself. Nothing is superfluous. It was written in our press after the group Simply Red concert “Arena Riga”, when the group celebrated its 30th anniversary. Nothing has changed – the musicians will soon celebrate their 40th anniversary. The only changes are with the line-up of musicians – that Simply Red at least thirty have remained in the ranks. The only one left from the very, very beginnings is frontman Mike Hucknell, whose fire-red head of curly hair gave rise to the band’s name. We are listening to the band’s opus So Many People.
The name of Cape Verde was made particularly popular in the world by the singer Cesaria Evora, but she is far from the only one who can boast of a bright talent that should be noted on a wider scale. So is the singer Carmina Souza, which successfully fuses the Cape Verdean singing tradition with modern jazz language that everyone can understand. To be fair, she was only born in Cape Verde – after the so-called carnation revolution in 1975, the future singer’s parents moved to Lisbon. She returned to the islands only twice – as a child with her parents on a kind of excursion and once more in 2010. Karmina approaches the singing material without prejudice: if she likes an instrumental melody, she herself writes down the words to it and – done… In her performance, the composition sounds Song For My Father.
Balaam Vaimenaam – to the first and constant bass man The Rolling Stones member since 1962, in 1993 he got tired of all the noise and noise that accompanies being part of such a popular group, and he said – that’s it, enough. He was never far from the lure of the stage – in 1997 he organized his own line-up Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings and started writing albums and performing again. In some press editions, this event was called a club of veterans with a changing composition, but will the man who recorded 19 albums with “Rollingiem” and last year participated episodicly in the creation of the newest megagroup’s masterpiece listen to such jokes? Here is the composition Tomorrow Night.
Colleagues about colleagues – that’s what the record could be called, where Irwin Berlin’s popular theme Alexander’s Ragtime Band performed by the ensemble Bourbon Street Jazz Band. It’s just a coincidence of circumstances… no – words. It happens…
At the beginning of the 50s of the last century, the great jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker warned the no less great trumpeter Miles Davis – you know, there is a boy living on the west coast who could easily eat you without salt… And this boy’s name was Chyou are beikers. In 1954, at the age of only 23, Chet Baker was recognized as the best trumpet player of the magazine Down Beat in the survey, and at the same time in the evaluation of both critics and readers! There was no success. In addition, Chet also often sang in a unique, unique manner. Perhaps the lifestyle he practiced was not particularly healthy, but to the surprise of himself and those around him, he lived for 58 years. Without him, the world’s musical heritage would be much, much poorer. Chet Baker himself described himself best: “I love to play, and that, in my opinion, is the only reason why I was put in this world…” In his performance, we listen to the famous My Funny Valentine.
There is another singer whose voice cannot be mistaken – it is an American artist Els Žaro. He was born in the family of a church vicar and logically, together with his five brothers, he sang in his father’s church choir. Later – already at the age of seven Grammy award winner – claimed that singing was his first and greatest love since he first became aware of himself. Only the idea was not to connect life seriously with it – the boy had many interests. First of all, he had already decided to become a servant of God in order to imitate his father. In later years, interests shifted to sports: Els showed excellent success in basketball and baseball. And he was also one of the best in studies – a member of the student council and the senior of the class. Interests were now connected with psychology studies, which were continued at the University of Iowa. In 1966, with a master’s degree in psychology in his pocket, Els Gero moved to San Francisco to work honestly in social work, but in the evenings he began to perform together with George Duke’s trio – a pianist who was still unknown to anyone at that time. Two years was enough time for El to come to the conclusion that the choice of life path was wrong. The rest, as they say, is history… Sounds She’s Leaving Home.
But let’s say goodbye with a cheerful song that was written exactly forty years ago… Its name is “April drops”!
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2024-04-07 06:23:32
#April #drops #hour #Ansi #Pavasari
