The Whole Music Experience

Lo’Jo Cinéma el Mundo World Village It takes a global village to make a Lo’Jo album, but then Lo’Jo, hailing from Angers, France, feels more like a collective of nomadic musicians, than a structured sextet.   After a hiatus from North America, the French band has returned with the eclectic Cinéma el Mundo (Cinema of the World) that harks back to Lo’Jo’s Mojo Radio of the late 1990s, but minus rousing songs such as Mojo Radio and Sin Acabar .   The new album possesses a more contemplative sound and like the cinema in its title, conjures floating images. I have yet to come across a world music act that fuses whirling circus music with traditional instruments from Africa, Asia, and Europe in the manner of Lo’Jo--“original” doesn’t come close to describing this band’s music.   I imagine any music journalist new to the scene will choke on adjectives trying to describe this band that defies any labels.   Then with each album, the musicians del...

Les Chauds Lapins Amourettes Barbès Records Imagine the Golden Age of French music (1920-1940s) revisited by an American bluegrass player and a side musician for They Might Be Giants. Meg Reichardt (Roulette Sisters) and Kurt Hoffman (The Ordinaires) pull of the Parisian accent and the atmosphere of the French swing and chansons on Amourettes . On the surface you might imagine that you’re sitting in a Parisian café with the smell of roasted beans wafting past your nose and Parisians rushing pass you, but the song lyrics border on the absurd at times and recall Godard’s cinema with Parisians cloaked in bohemian black philosophizing about love, sex, and death. The recording lends itself to daydreaming and provides wonderful dinnertime music.  I enjoy listening to the album while I'm cooking dinner. Musically, the songs have been arranged for strings, acoustic bass, trumpet, plucked banjo, guitar, and ukulele, that’s right, ukulele. The plucky songs bounce along like a...

Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys Grand Isle Self-Release/Independent The oil-crusted bird that appears on the cover of Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys’ latest recording, Grand Isle is that picture that tells a story of 1,000 words. The image of the bird’s feathers smothered in oil as it stands in a puddle of petroleum mirrors the “survivor joy” that the Cajun band peppers throughout its press notes. But if you’re expecting Louisiana-style laments you won’t find many on this recording that sounds swampy while blending honky-tonk with 2-stepping Cajun fare. The band closes the recording with melancholy fiddle and vocals on the song, Au revoir (and that's the extent of sadness on the recording). According to the press notes, the Mamou Playboys took a small and intimate route with this recording, and the tracks were recorded at several locations with both modern and vintage audio and production coming into the mix. While this music might sound celebratory on the s...

Arcanto Quartett Quatuors à cordes Debussy, Dutilleux, Ravel Harmonia Mundi I have mixed feelings about Aracanto Quartett’s Quatuors à cordes . I’m a fan of the French Impressionist composers, Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy so I enjoy hearing their string quartets. While the composers employed some dissonance in their quartets, they also provided harmonic release. I cannot say the same for French composer Henri Dutilleux’s suite, Ainsi la nuit in which the composers brings no release to his listeners. It’s as if listeners are trapped in a desert of dissonance and punished by the shrillness of strings. Similar to a cat which can meow sweetly or caterwaul, string instruments can also provide its share of tension while playing dissonant passages. Granted the composer set out to express darker emotions and even the words “unsettling anxiety and sombre violence” appear in the liner notes to convey part of what the French composer aimed at expressing—the experience of night...

Michèle Choinière La Violette Independent release (Franco-American folkloric) I read the book The Town that Food Saved that focused on the food system of a village of 3,000 people, Hardwick, Vermont. The author of the book mentioned a community of French-Canadians that immigrated to Vermont to set up dairy farms during the early decades of the 20th century. While there are few French-Canadian dairy farms left in Vermont and many of the former Canadians assimilated into American (US) culture, a few diehards such as Michèle Choinière still exist. And what’s interesting about Choinière is that she collects music from Acadians, Quebecois, 20th century France and her own lineage in Vermont. She considers La Violette a dance album and sure enough, you’ll find waltzes and soiree (kitchen party) send-ups on the album. While there isn't enough space in a CD review to delve into contrasts and comparisons between the Franco-Vermont music and Cajun music of Louisiana or tradition...

Christophe Rousset Louis Couperin (1626-1661) Harmonia Mundi Early baroque composer Louis Couperin, not to be confused with his nephew François Couperin, composed amazingly gorgeous suites for harpsichord. While I know little about the Couperin musical dynasty of France, I have enjoyed harpsichord master/baroque music expert Christophe Rousset’s performance of Louis Couperin’s harpsichord suites. The range and emotional depth of these suites can hardly be contained on 2 compact discs and as each disc ends an urge to press the play button surfaces. There is nothing like the regal and distant sound of a harpsichord when performed by a master musician. The shimmering notes, the lilting rhythms, and sensitivity of this instrument invite us to step back in time a few hundred years. This recording contains 6 suites reconstructed by Rousset and each suite contains a number of baroque dances, mostly French with the sarabande hailing from Spain (from what I read recently the shady roo...

The Return of Lo'Jo: Conversation with Denis Pèan Lojo, World Village Writing about the French globetrotting troubadours Lo’Jo requires some effort, as any music journalist familiar with the sextet will attest. A dictionary is required along with a sense of childhood whimsy. All preconceived concepts of world music must be tossed out so that an emphasis on “playing” music comes through loud and clear. When it comes to describing Lo’Jo to my friends and colleagues, not to mention readers of my articles, I’ve been stumbling over words since 1998 when I first caught these musicians on a small indoor stage at WOMAD USA. I wasn’t into world music yet nor did I have any idea that over a decade later I would blog about the healing power of music. Lo’Jo’s enchanting music elegantly brought many cultures onto a single stage, thus proving that we could all get along if we spoke the universal language. I woke me up from a collective trance. And since 1998 and 2001, (the 2nd appear...

Around the World in a Day Let’s sample 11 Putumayo CDs representing South America, the African continent, the Arab world, Europe and North America. We’ll start in 2009 and work our way down to 2003 creating a time capsule effect. And since compilations such as French Café and Italian Café bring out vintage performers, we will travel far and wide. Putumayo Presents Brazilian Café (2009)—This compilation presents a laidback Brazilian vibe. New and established artists perform traditional and not-so-traditional bossa novas and sambas. The right mix of female and male voices, lush horns, soft guitar and Brazilian rhythms make this the ideal music for a rainy day. Café Cubano (2008)—I bet the food is spicy and the rum plenty in a Cuban café. I don’t drink so if I visited a trova house or café, I’d hope to hear sones and boleros sung by musicians preserving their musical heritage. And that’s exactly what you’ll hear on this disc. Veterans and newcomers perform that hip-...

Dante String Quartet with Simon Crawford-Phillips Debussy String Quartet Ravel String Quartet and Violin Sonata Hyperion/Harmonia Mundi In 2000 or 2001 when I was reviewing cinema, I checked out the film, Un Coeur en Hiver (A Heart in Winter) by Claude Sautet from the library. While the love story in the film portrayed by French actors Daniel Auteuil and Emmanuelle Beart felt cold and philosophical to me, the music by Ravel struck a chord. Unfortunately, I did not think of writing down the soundtrack information and I ended up checking out every Ravel recording from the library in search of the music. To make a long story short, I finally found the music on Dante String Quartet’s Debussy String Quartet/Ravel String Quartet and Violin Sonata. And I finally found a Ravel and Debussy recording where the musicians perform all the movements of the compositions. I heard only one movement of Debussy’s String Quartet in G minor , Assez vif et bien rythmè and single movements of ...

About Provence and Provencal Music:   Southeastern France or Provence is a former Roman province, located on the Mediterranean Sea and adjacent to the Italian border.  Provence is bordered by the Alps and Italy to the east, the Rhone River to the west and the Mediterranean Sea provides the southern border.  The principality of Monaco, Nice, Marseilles, Aix-en-Provence, Avignon, Arles are all important Provençal cities.  Occitan is the language historically spoken in Provence and the Occitan regions of France, although the language has been losing its prominence.  The language is also spoken in parts of Spain, Italy (Piedmont), Germany and even the U.S (Idaho and Oregon).  The famed medieval troubadours penned their poetry and sung their verses in Occitan, which is a Latin Romance language. The troubadours draw comparisons to the West African griot or the Irish bards.  They not only sung love songs, they also traveled on trade routes bring...

Trio Ifriqiya (Faycal El Mezouar, Èmile Biayenda and Didier Frèboeuf Petite Planète World Village I have had to listen to Trio Ifriqiya’s Petite Planète several times before reviewing it. To label it a fusion project would do this recording an injustice. True, Algerian Faycal El Mezouar’s Arabic oud, violin, percussion and vocals make a good marriage with Didier Frèboeuf’s jazz piano and the neutral drumming of Èmile Biayenda (founder of Les Tambours de Brazza). However, as the album’s title implies Arab-Andalusian music and jazz improvisations only scratch at the surface of a global musical dialogue that travels from West and North Africa to Spain, to the United States and back again. A listener can glean a lot from this trio’s repertoire and do some mind-traveling in the meantime. The opener, Ya Qalbi Khelli el Hal delves into those Arabic modes, complete with Arabic vocals, oud, piano and percussion. Hada al Gharam mixes up the jazz improvisations with the Arabic mode...

Corou de Berra Au fil du temps... independent release Twenty years in the making, France's mixed voices choir, Corou de Berra released a retrospective recording entitled, Au fil de temps... (as time goes by). The six voice choir hails from the French Alps and the vocalists perform traditional songs from Provence, Nice, and Italy. They mostly offer up lush a cappella vocals, even spine-chilling a cappella as on the religious piece, Stabat Mater , or happier fare, Bella bella ciao , which many listeners would have heard at one time or another in their lives. However, the choir has also performed original contemporary polyphony. If you listen to track 8, Di mi pichon , composed by Michel Bianco and Serge Dotti for instance, you will hear those luscious vocal harmonies playing along with swing violin, and not too long ago, the choir produced a retrospective of the late Italian folk singer, Fabrizio de Andre. Peter's War from maschi feminine cantanti appears on this 20...