Music for your Monday

I am thrilled to have recently come across the sounds of the Amsterdam Klezmer Band, a group known for combining klezmer (Eastern European Jewish music) with dub, jazz and other contemporary sounds.

Here is "The Immigrant Song" from their album Balkan Fever (it ends at just over 3:00). Listen for the "oys" on the backbeats (2 and 4), which is characteristic of reggae and ska.

Music for your Monday

A friend of mine introduced me to this music a few weeks ago. Even though it was being played out loud on her iPhone and didn't have stellar sound, the music itself was incredible. It is not often that I hear music this beautiful that so immediately captures my ear. So here is "The King of Spain" by the Swedish folk artist, The Tallest Man on Earth.

Sometimes, you might think back to legendary musicians, folk artists, singer-songwriters whose music changed the world and change the way we think about music, and we think, "I wonder what life was like back then when these legends were in the process of making this music. Were they recognized in their own time for their sheer genius?" This is what I wonder about this song you are about to hear.

Manic Music Monday (2)

Today, I want to introduce you to one of my favourite groups of all time, the Senegalese Orchestra Baobab. Heavily influenced by Cuban rhythms, they began in the 1970s, only to break up in the 80s and then reunite in 2001. Turn it up!!!

Best Album of 2010 (no, it's most definitely not KPop!)

My favorite album of 2010 has to be The ArchAndroid by Janelle Monae, a killer performer who is able to layer about a million different things together and make it all sound really, really good. The album is narrated from the perspective of Monae's alter-ego, Cindy Mayweather, a messiah-like robot (it's a "conceptual thing," but don't ask me anything about it because whenever I try to explain it in person, it succeeds in doing nothing more than garnering a few raised eyebrows). Just listen. Check out the single Tightrope here, which features Big Boi of Outkast.

It's that time of the month...

...when I feel about ready to explode from stress. For the past week and a half, we've had Hanukkah and Roo's third birthday, both of which have necessitated lots of visiting with extended family (...), and my "Lady Grammar" performance, which went over well at the Language Centre's final party.

Now it's time to gear up for my mother's hasty second marriage. Well, not hasty in that she and my father have been happily divorced since 2000 (for a sum total of 20 years if you count their initial, therapy-inducing ten). I mean hasty in the sense that she and her husband-to-be, Helmut, (yes, that is his name!) have been courting since July of this year. Although they used to know each other in the early 1980s (they used to be couples friends during the drop-off years of disintegrating first marriages), and although there was some "attraction" there, nothing happened, then divorce, then his subsequent marriage, etc, etc.... Anyway, she's blissfully in love, and I'm happy for her.

I had thought that Celine Dion might be involved in this celebration, and by gum, she be! Mom will surprise Helmut with a song ("Then You Looked at Me"), which she'll sing and I'll play on acoustic guitar. It's a pretty huge step for her to actually stand in front of people to perform in this way, so I think it's pretty cool. I don't even care that it's Celine Dion! Bo and Roo and I have also been practicing a song that they'll be singing, and which I'll play, "Hinneh ma Tov." That's exactly how we sound. And look.

I'm not such a grinch...most of the time...

Though I don't subscribe to the theology touted in Handel's masterpiece, this video still made my heart grow three sizes today! Stunning! You can find out more about Random Acts of Culture here.



Then my cynical side notes the irony of the fact that this great piece of music is being performed in what may be our own culture's hall of worship.

Trot Rock!

I remember the first time I heard trot music: riding home in a taxi after having been in Korea for only a short while (2 or 3 weeks, I think), when the taxi driver suddenly cranked the volume on the radio and started belting out the lyrics to the song in the most beautiful baritone, complete with vibrato reminiscent of the great Jewish cantors of old. I had not yet heard this music, though it immediately caught my ear, especially the sound of the accordion.

For years, I didn't know the name or the style of this music, though I could immediately identify its distinctive 2/4 beat when I heard it. To me, there is something in the melodies and the chord progressions that reminds me of klezmer, though I know these genres are not at all related. Indeed, after poking around a bit on the Internet, I discovered this music was called trot (트로트), after the foxtrot, and was hugely popular in Korea pre-1960s. It gradually declined in popularity throughout the following decades, though it has become more popular again in the past few years, especially due to modern K-pop artists who are getting back to an earlier sound. Check out Ask a Korean for much more info on this music.

A few videos to introduce you to the phenomenon of trot...

The video below is a song by Lee Meeja, and the song is called Lady Camellia (동백아가씨) – ostensibly one of the more popular trot songs. Thanks again to Ask a Korean for this one.



Jang Yun-Jeong, a young "semi-trot" artist, had another popular trot hit a few years ago, called 어머나! ("Oh my goodness!"). She is interesting because her music has succeeded in introducing a younger generation to this music, which is generally more popular among an older demographic.



And finally, a post on K-pop could never be considered complete without mention of Super Junior. Here is "Rokuko," from their 2008 Japanese release (the single was released the year before in Korea). The one below features the Japanese comedy duo, Moeyan. Other than that, I have absolutely no idea what's going on here.

Drunken Tiger

When I was in Korea in 2005, I was fortunate enough to stumble across some pretty decent Korean hip hop. Drunken Tiger was a group I listened to quite a bit, although the vast majority of the lyrics were unintelligible to me. I read up a bit on the group, found out that it was largely fronted by Tiger JK, a Korean-American artist who strives for mutual understanding between Koreans and blacks in the US, and who recently (and secretly) wed a Korean-(black) American artist Tasha Reid (Yoon Mi Rae). All of the above is pretty much a preamble for the real purpose of this post... the tres cool Drunken Tiger video below, which features Reid aka Yoon aka Gemini. Check it out!