Hey, music lovers and lovers of life. Time for another midweek cafe and lounge. Grooving on a world music vibe at the moment.
Bob Marley was one of several artists I deeply admired back in the day. I still do. At a time when there are evil people who want to build walls and pull us back into a dark age, let’s tear down walls and light up the darkness.
Bar is fully stocked and there’s always music. Enjoy!
I have another Bob Marley drink for this week’s special, the Twisted Bob Marley.
The bartender is taking requests
Foday Musa Suso, from back around the mid-1980s.
With another Olympics about to start, I can’t help but think of this collaboration between Foday Musa Suso and Herbie Hancock for the 1984 Summer Olympics. The sheer combination of influences from multiple continents is itself something to behold. That whole global village vibe is one I’ve grooved on for practically a lifetime.
While Herbie Hancock was making great music associated with the L.A. Olympics, he was achieving fame for another kind of music entirely. Here he is at the 1984 Grammy Awards performing his first Grammy Award winner, “Rockit.”
Herbie Hancock certainly has a flair for the eclectic. At that time, he could write and perform a hip-hop inspired track like Rockit, collaborate with world music performers, and even go back to the sort of straight-ahead acoustic jazz he was known for back at the start of his career. There was a time when jazz artists regularly did well on the Billboard pop charts. Rockit may not have been the last time that happened, but it was certainly the last one I can recall – if for no other reason than there really seemed to be nothing quite like it at the time.
Codona – the title track to the combo’s first album. Released in 1979. I think I first heard it in 1980 thanks to an ECM sampler album my folks gave away to me (wasn’t their idea of jazz). This one was a revelation to me. I can still listen to this track (and that whole first album) many years later and still hear something new:
Eno I became familiar with through the likes of David Bowie and Talking Heads. Jon Hassell also did some sessions work for Talking heads right around the start of the 1980s. It didn’t take long before I’d be digging through records at local record outlets looking for their work. The recordings these two artists did together are well worth seeking out.
Here’s a little something from the 1990s – Richard H. Kirk’s combo Cabaret Voltaire broke up, but he just kept on going. Sometimes he’d record under his own name, sometimes under any of a number of pseudonyms, such as Sandoz. As a solo keyboardist/DJ, global musical elements and human rights became increasingly central to his work.
This is just a beautiful chill-out room track.
Someone turned me on to Deep Forest back when their first CD dropped, and I am eternally thankful to that person. Sweet Lullaby is one of my favorite tracks. Enjoy the official video:
This track was from the film Strange Days – one I saw at a small movie theater specializing in indie and art house films before it would close toward the end of the 1990s. The film was an interesting concept and probably did not get the reception it deserved at the time. This track I believe was part of the closing credits. A Peter Gabriel/Deep Forest collaboration was a nice touch.
I honestly don’t know how I managed to stumble on to this video a few years ago, but I fell in love with this song. Gasper Nali knocked it out of the park with this one. Later, I’d find a video of Joss Stone and Gasper performing this as a duet:
Although Drums of Passion was my introduction to the musical universes Babatunde Olatunji was creating, his sessions as a jazz band leader are well worth finding as well. Soul Makosa, the album on which this track appears, has some great grooves. Flaming Drums is also worth checking out.
In a few weeks, I hope to offer a compilation of Japanese ambient music from the 1980s. I was unaware of any of the artists until very, very recently and needless to say am very intrigued. The relation to the work of, say, Brian Eno is definitely there, but there are some really fun differences as well. So, that’s on tap once I have a bit more time to do some research.
I don’t think Jon Hassell’s music was ever really classifiable. It got labeled as “new age” back when I was young. That never really fit. His songs were not intended to serve as something in the background. When he plays the trumpet without all the effects, he sounds quite reminiscent of Miles Davis. With all the effects, he sounds like he’s from another dimension:
This track is a personal favorite, and appeared on Jon Hassell’s first proper album as a band leader. I hope some of you enjoy it as well.
During the free jazz revival of the 1990s, a lot of early free jazz recordings were made commercially available. That was great, because a lot of wonderful music was really damned difficult to find. Alice Coltrane’s solo work really deserves its due. Not often you hear the harp as a lead instrument. And Pharoah Sanders was in fine form. Her best work was truly chill-out music. This track and the album Journey in Satchidananda would definitely make the cut for my collection of desert island discs.
Some early 1990s dub, courtesy African Head Charge.
I liked PiL back when I was much younger, but I loved their stuff when Jah Wobble was still with the band (especially Second Edition. I’ll likely be following Jah Wobble’s career for as long as I can draw a breath. I’ve shared this track before, but largely because it’s such a wonderful exemplar of the vibe he’s been grooving on from the beginning.