World Music Reviews from The Record Reviewer
...Continued
Shirim Klezmer Orchestra play with more spark than flash on Naftule's Dream (Northeastern), and out of sheer
laziness I initially let their aloofness sour me. Then, quite abruptly,
their idiosyncratic approach shattered my defenses, and now I don't see
how I ever missed the pleasures of their ingenuity. Stinging vocal numbers
like "What Can You Makh?" (What Can You Do), performed by Betty
Silberman as if yanked from a lost Brecht-Weil score, mingle with instrumentals
obsessed with bringing a secret klezmer subtext to the fore. On "Waiting,"
penned by bandleader and clarinetist Glenn Dickson, you can almost hear
the gray matter bubbling as cool piano and trombone parts interrupt a repeating
clarinet motif that never does connect with the Electrician or Godot, while
the title track unwinds a mystery in a tone poem dedicated to Yiddish clarinet
legend Naftule Brandwein. While not as blatantly adventuresome as genre-scramblers
the Klezmatics or Toronto's Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band, Shirim's bracing
mix of traditional music, jazz, program music and theater is still visionary.
Many a cd has sold through the grace of a single outstanding song, and the
Ethiopians' retrospective Owner Fe De Yard
(Heartbeat) kicks off with the killer title cut that's all the more remarkable
because it languished unreleased in the vaults of Studio One since 1978
or '79. Illuminated by a casual vocal delivery that at first seems too frail
to handle Leonard Dillon's heat-seeking lyrics, the voices gain momentum
until they finally rival the force of fierce Nyabingi drum bursts and edge-of-the-universe
guitar skank, turning a song about personal dignity into a declaration of
cultural independence.
And "Yard" isn't even the best cut in the collection. Those honors
go to the rambling testament, "One Heart," in which lead singers
Dillon and Steven Taylor trade apocalyptic bromides, slogans, and epithets,
vying to one-up each other in their descriptions of the terrible end-times
to come. For a while the match is evenly met, but Taylor ultimately triumphs
with a vision of Jah's wrath that has a delighted Dillon congratulating
him with, "Bitter, man, bitter. Well spoken, brother." Then both
men erupt in appreciative cackles as a tough sax and guitar groove by Lyn
Taitt and the Jets signals the imminence of Judgment Day--but keeps on playing
and playing. And I keep hitting the "repeat" button of my Discman.
Between "Yard" and "One Heart" is another good song,
"I'll Never Get Burn," and after "One Heart" are other
good songs, but the standard has been set so high that nothing else quite
measures up in the slow diminishing that follows. By the time we reach "Cherry
Pee" the bite is all in Dillon's ganja pipe rather than in the lyrics,
whose memorable chorus states, "Cherry pee, cherry pee, chip, chip,
blah, blah, blah, tra-la-la-la-la"--eloquent enough, but hardly on
a par with the surprising finish to one of the title cut's Rasta Goose rhymes,
"I know I went to school / And I took in the golden rule / I know that
I'm no fool / And I'm no colonial stooge." All things averaged out,
this is a very worthy disc.
Gone are the days when I could recite the titles of every song in correct
order on a frequently played release. When "Ozdole Ide devoitche"
follows "S'gaida na horo" on Tour '93, my short-term memory ceases
to exist. But I'm off the hook. This 22-cut live performance by the Bulgarian Women's Choir--not to be confused
with Le Mystere Des Voix Bulgares, which I guess is another group--culls
tracks from the Mesa label's double-disc Melody Harmony & Rhythm
for reissue on a single cd. As I mentioned in my picaresque "Sauce
for the Goose" Technobeat review a few issues back, if you enjoy the
melody harmony & rhythm of neatened-up Bulgarian vocal music, you'll
find the heavy artillery here. But if you prefer your ambiance ecstasy &
gloominess unbroken by applause, best look to other sources for your shot
of the ineffable.
The Cameroonian George Benson, Vincent Nguini, throws around slabs
of sunlight on Symphony-Bantu (Mesa),
a hi-NRG blend of highlife, jazz, rock, funk, new age and telephone "hold"
music that makes a good morning accompaniment to a couple of squares of
toast. But it lacks the essential vitamins and fiber I need to make it through
the day. Saxophonist Michael Brecker plus vocalists Maxine and a couple
of other Waters contribute to this world music equivalent of V-8, stirring
together so many different ingredients in such small doses, the end product
is inevitably familiar and undistinguished despite Nguini's engaging vocals
and blameless guitar work--especially the synth-balafon patterns per Les
Tetes Brulees on "Mavro." As much as I enjoy the idea of the artist
listening to Frank Zappa and Jimi Hendrix in his youth and using those influences
to broaden the base of his music, African pop with American elements as
a departure point almost always fares better than the opposite which, in
sensibility and production values, is what we get here.
All world music reviews by Bob Tarte from:www.technobeat.com
World Music:Africa/The Americas/Asia and the Pacific//Music Alphabetically Ordered/Anthologies/Klezmer, Polka, Indipop, Etc.