Bachata Roja/Vijana Jazz Band
Oldies but Goodies, Pained and Jocose
This introduction to Dominican son was "recorded live to 2-track," sniffs the same label's co-released Bachata Legends, in which the original artists re-record decades-old classics smoothly and even beautifully but seldom enthrallingly. What the original vocals lacked in accomplished ease they made up and then some in quirky intensity, and they weren't anything like amateurish. With more at stake professionally and personally, these young singers grabbed onto the "bitterness" at the heart of their barrio-bohemian genre so as to dramatize not only the pain of thwarted love but the hunger for public identity that eats at a people after half a century of tyranny. Sometimes it's almost like they're crying. A MINUS
Vijana Jazz Band: The Koka Koka Sex Battalion: Rumba, Koka Koka & Kamata Sukuma: Music From Tanzania 1975-1980 (Sterns)
One band with two names so it could record over quota when it managed the journey to the studio in Nairobi, Vijana Jazz Band and its Koka Koka Sex Battalion doppelganger favored the typical East African iteration of soukous's rippling guitars. Sometimes this approach is compared to country music, but that's a metaphor, not a musical analogy‑-these guys aren't true soloists, and rarely is Nashville guitar so ramshackle. In East African rumba, guitars provide atmosphere more than content. The content's in the jocosely hectoring vocals and single-line saxophone interjections, which with this enjoyable little band are numerous and various enough to engage non-Swahili speakers who find some of the melodies warm and others tepid. B PLUS
Current listening: UB40 - Signing Off Deluxe Edition
Soon-to-be current viewing: Criterion Blu-rays of Kubrick's Paths of Glory and Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited (Xmas presents) and Scorsese's Hugo in 3-D at the moviehaus.
And it's funny to read that Lenny Bruce shtick in the context of our own moment, when the reference to "Drake's cakes" can't help but remind us of the Canadian Black and Jewish rapper. I'm pretty sure Lenny Bruce would have called him goyish. Kanye, though, probably Jewish...
Bris- You got me. I'm so Waspy I've got magnets on my fridge. My knowledge stops at the Klezmatics. Surely , Mel Torme or Dinah Shore could maybe be included if you don't mind some goyim christmas music mixed in.
As for best single of the year, it would be a hoot if Rebecca Black got some mentions for Friday. I think it's an unintended satire of pop which makes it a fascinating oxymoron, or maybe "Leck Mich Im Arsch" will be the surprise vote receiver.
I just object that they say "all my goyim friends" when I'm pretty sure it should be "goyish friends." Goyim is the collective noun, right? Not the adjective?
Kool-Aid is goyish. All Drake’s cakes are goyish. Pumpernickel is Jewish and, as you know, white bread is very goyish. Macaroons are very Jewish. Fruit salad is Jewish. Lime Jell-O is goyish. Lime soda is very goyish. Trailer parks are so goyish that Jews won’t go near them.
Cyclops --
jream, are you guys going for City of or the larger area known as Alexandria?
Fort Hunt. i'd love to live in Old Town or Del Ray, but i think Fort Hunt will offer the most balance of everything we want.
music related question: have you ever been to the IOTA in Arlington? cool place? easy/hard to get tickets? i saw that you can only buy them at the door on the night of the event on a first come first serve basis.
Me, I'd go for a "lights" playlist--Kanye's "All of the Lights," Chris Smither's "Leave the Light On," Loleatta Holloway's version of "You Light Up My Life," like that...
about the blogger
Starting in 1967, Robert Christgau has covered popular music for The Village Voice, Esquire, Blender, Playboy, Rolling Stone, and many other publications. He teaches in New York University's Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music, maintains a comprehensive website at robertchristgau.com, and has published five books based on his journalism. He has written for MSN Music since 2006.
follow msn music
music news
- Geri Halliwell thanks 'Viva Forever!' cast and crew for hard work
- Carole King hits D.C. for Gershwin salute
- Ke$ha slammed over urine-drinking stunt
- Aretha Franklin taking June off, postponing shows
- Guitarist Trevor Bolder loses cancer battle
- Rapper Chief Keef arrested at hotel near Atlanta
- Toby Keith says Okla. hometown is 'resilient'
- Eminem's publisher sues Facebook over song usage
- Moscow blasts alleged vote theft at Eurovision
- Publicist: Ray Manzarek, founding member of the Doors, dies at 74
