Sinatra & Jobim

Girl from Ipanema

The Decemberists

Ando completamente fascinado, caros ouvintes, com a rádio do Yahoo Music. Através de um banal sistema de busca e depois de rating podemos lentamente construir a nossa rádio ideal. A grande vantagem disto é a descoberta infinita de novas bandas "relacionadas" com as que vamos elogiando ou recomendadas por fãs dessas bandas. Um desses grupos que descobri recentemente é The Decemberists, cujo álbum de 2003 Her Majesty The Decemberists é simplesmente soberbo. Penso que na classificação do Yahoo Music estará relacionada com Death Cab for Cutie, mas também me parece similar ao grande Sufjan Stevens. Ficam estas sugestões para novas explorações musicais.

That's the time

Segundo se diz (no allmusic), o compositor Eugene McDaniels, convidou a sua assistente para passar um fim de semana na casa de lago da sua família. Passado um dia depara-se com a já referida, a fazer as malas, dizendo que tinha de se ir embora porque sentia que tinha que ir fazer amor para outro lado. O Eugene sentiu que tinha que ir ali compor uma música na guitarra.
Duas semanas depois estava em estúdio com Roberta Flack e com Rubina Flack (o pseudónimo de Roberta, que utilizava quando produzia músicas e não se limitava a cantar) para gravar "Feel like makin' love".
O verão de 1974 tornou-se dourado como este single que foi nomeado para Grammys e esteve no topo das tabelas de vendas. Foram feitas aproximadamente 20 versões conhecidas desta música até aos dias de hoje. Já tenho três incluindo a original e decidi que quero ter todas, mesmo as pirosas, que se poderão tornar em cromos repetidos e odiados.
A da Roberta pode-se ouvir aqui.

Algumas versões (clicar nos nomes para ouvir):
Roy Ayers
George Benson
Isaac Hayes
Larry Coryell
Glady's Knight and the Pips
D'Angelo

Extended version

Em primeiro lugar quero pedir desculpa pela extensão deste post.
Em segundo lugar explicar porque decidi transcrever o texto que vem no inlay do último registo do D'Angelo, o álbum Voodoo, que já tem 6 anos: é uma espécie de manifesto, não assinado, é extenso e achei interessante.
Em terceiro lugar gostava de saber o que tem feito este homem, que ao que se diz estará a aperfeiçoar a sua técnica em alguns instrumentos há varios anos. Quem conseguir esperar por um novo álbum mais tempo, também conseguirá ler esta transcrição.

"To be the son of a preacher man was once African American cultural royalty. As traditional churches have grown empty many of us have been left to wander these haunted castles like that displaced Prince of Denmark, contemplating the paths of our mothers: that electric lady that landed us here in the first place. The Aquarian Age is a matriarchal age, and if are to exist as men in this new world many of us must learn to embrace and nurture that wich is feminine with all of our hearts (he-art). But is there any room for artistry in hiphop's decadent man-sion? Have we walked our timberlands soleless...sole-less? When you pour that wine on the ground in that video shoot that has become your life will you be ready to hear the voice that pours from the bottle to inebriate the very ground on wich we walk? It is libations such as these that are the start of every voodoo ceremony. And let us not forget that that is why we have come.
We have came in the name of Jimi, Sly, Marvin, Stevie, all artists formerly known as spirits and all spirits formerly known as stars. We have come in the tradition of burning bushes, burning ghettos, burning splifs, and the ever-burning candles of our bedrooms and silent chambers. We have come bearing instruments and our voices: falsetto and baritone, percussion and horns. We have come adorned in the apparel of the anointed: leather and feathers, jeans and t-shirts, linen and cashemere, and even polyester. We have come to seduce and serenade the night and the powers of darkness. We speak of darkness, not as ignorance, but as the unknown and the mysteries of the unseen.
Envision this: a lone man in a haunted room surrounded by glowing instruments. What sounds are evoked from a room where Jimi once slept? What are the rewards of those who tend to their God-given talents as they would have the creator tend to their spirits and daily lives? What happens when the artist becomes the conjur man?
These are the questions that seem to be null and void in the face of all the glitter and glamour that has dominated most successful black artistry of recent years. We seen to be more preoccupied with cultivating our banks accounts than cultivating our crafts. Nowadays, I find my peers more inspired by an artist's business tactics than their artistry. In fact, we do not seem to mind an artistry that suffers in the face of seemingly good business. More artists seem to yearn to own their own labels, etc., than they seem to yearn to master their crafts. No, we cannot allow more Bessie Smiths to occur, but once an artist owns their own publishing the question then becomes, what are you going to publish? Of course, I am using the word "artist" loosely. I', personally, believe in an art as it exists in the context of the phrase "thou art God". In this phrase, art is the word that connects the individual (thou) to their higher self (God) or to that wich is universal. Using such a standart, most emcees might become embarrassed.
Whoa! Why am I attacking hip hop? 'Cause I'm a lyricist, son, a lyricist that has had to serve his own inspiration when most of my peers seem to idolize Donald Trump more than Sly Stone, when they don't seem to realize that Jimi Hendrix was and is a sonic Bill Gates. Oh shit, don't make me call no names.
Now, you may ask, "well what does this have to do with D'Angelo?"
My answer: inspiration.
Here is a peer that is focused wholly on his craft and has given himself the challenge of bettering himself. I mean really, D could have come out with any ol' follow-up album after Brown Sugar dropped so that he could double his sales "while he's still hot". You know, an album that sounds just like Brown Sugar, uses all the same formulas, so that the audiences don't have to think... or grow, they just keep liking the same shit. He could even sample songs that you're already familiar with so that you don't have to go through the "hard work" of getting used to a new melody or bass line. Y'all don't hear me.
You might respond, "Lyrics? Yo, I can't even understand half the shit that D'Angelo be saying. Tha nigga sounds like Bobby McFerrin on opium". And I'd say, "you're right. neither can I. But I am drawn to figure out what it is that he's saying. His vocal collaging intrigues me." Or you might say, "but his shit don't sound all that original, he just sounds like he's trying to be Prince or some shit". And I'd say, maybe your'e right. At times he does. We often study the breathing techniques of our inspirations (inspire means to breathe in or to make breath, inhale). And that's also true for most of you emcees. I mean, don't 3/4 of y'all niggas sound like Nas? The difference is that D'Angelo has allowed influence to simply take it's place among his own intuitive artistry. He works to find his own voice within his main influences. I'd pay to see Prince's face has he listens to this album (Ahmir, ? of The Roots, said that the Artist let's black people call him Prince). Do you think he'd feel robbed or inspired? My opinion, over the years that I've sat in countless conversations about why it is that the Artist puts out half the shit he does (you know the half I'm talking about) is because he lacks any new inspiration. Once again an artist is faced with the reality of having to serve as their own inspiration after they have worn out all of their Sly, Jimi, Marvin, Stevie (I do not mean to ignore the many inspirational female singers, I'm just making a point as regards this male vocalist...)
Damn, is there any way to speak of that wich is feminine without having masculinity right in the middle of it? Female. Woman. Unless, of course, these words came first and we later derived male and man from them. Somehow, I doubt that. We need a new language to go along with this new age. And a new music.
Thus, we have come. As we prepare to journey, we must decide wich elements of our sonic past we are going to pack to carry with us into this new sound, The distilled ambiance of an Al Green song, the ambiguous sexual majesty of a Prince song, the creative genius of Stevie Wonder... D'Angelo has made his choices, carefully weaving them into his character, and has couragesously stepped into the void bearing these sonic offerings to be delivered to the beckoning goddess of the new age.
I do not wish to dissect this album. I'ts true dissection occurs in how it seeps into your life, shapes your moments. What you were doing when you realized he was saying this or that? How it played softly in the background when you first saw him or her. How you kept it on repeat on that special night. You'll see. These songs are incantations, testaments of artistry, confessions of an Aquarius as he steps into his own."

Conheço bem o teu Francês

Depois de United, Alphabetical, o sucesso com a participação na BSO de Lost in translation e um álbum ao vivo, os Phoenix surpreendem uma vez mais com It's never been like that. É um álbum que está na linha do que os franceses nos haviam já mostrado de melhor. Canções pop rápidas, electrizantes, divertidas, em que cada instrumento é trabalhado com pormenor, sem cair nas fórmulas pré-preparadas das músicas da moda. Os Phoenix atingem neste álbum a consagração de um som original e de uma identidade que urge ver ao vivo em Portugal.

the subservient chicken

ela dança
ela chora
ela vê televisão
ela até se passa dos carretos
e no final ainda agradece (se a ordenarem, claro)

subservientchicken.com >>

FROM A TO Z

Esta 4f, dia 7 Junho, Estado Líquido.
The Serenaders (André Caxaria & José Cunha)

Number 1

À terceira foi de vez, com este número um, o novo single de Pharrell Williams.
Mas neste caso são dois, porque Pharrell convidou outro número 1, Kanye West.
Os mais mediáticos e consagrados produtores de hiphop do momento juntos, produziram este "smash hit".







[Chorus - Pharrell] & (Kanye West)
Number 1 (baby girl you and me)
Smash hit (thats a hit to me)
Off the charts (look how she get to me)
Classic (she may not be nothin to you but she the shit to me)
Soon as I'm done (tell me how you love that)
I'm dashin (number 1 can't put nothin above that)
Home to hold your heart (you deserve a verse from me)
And smash it (we gon' party like it's our anniversary)
Go