Hugh Tracey

Top 100 2001, #99: Hugh Tracey
(Ombiza Charles – Masida Ngalina)
11" x 8.85"
ink and pastel on wood, 2002

Pulled one again from one of the many boxes in my attic that store the paintings from past Top 100 years. The occasion was a radio broadcast of Georges Collinet's Afropop Worldwide dedicated to Hugh Tracey. Tracey, the Alan Lomax of Africa, cut thousands of discs, field recordings from the 1920s through the 1970s. I have quite a few of those, scattered on different formats, all exquisite. Now a good many of the recordings are available on a cd series, the last (22nd) installment of which was just released. I have found my first music this year to match that of Roland Kirk. In fact Collinet likens one of the tracks he selected to the music of Kirk. It concerns a flute recording made in Congo, twenty years before Kirk came to the scene. Other highlights from the broadcast include a female duet from Malawi, a Xhosa solo on a one string bowed instrument from South Africa, ocinaras from Mozambique, aah too many to mention, but my favorite must be the tune Chemirocha by a Kipsigis woman from Kenya. The song is a tribute to Jimmie Rodgers (Chemirocha is how Jimmie Rodgers is pronounced by the singer). Chemirocha was in my list list of 100 twice before as it is featured on an original 10" disc from The Music of Africa Series that I have. Every song on it is introduced with wit, humor, and knowledge by Tracey himself. To make paintings illustrating the music from Tracey's archive will be a lot of fun again. Often the performers are anonymous or never photographed and I am free to use those images I deem appropriate. Chemirocha did already lead, in 2002 and 2003, to two nice paintings of a Kipsigis woman in full ceremonial regalia. I can't wait!

Rahsaan Roland Kirk

Rahsaan Roland Kirk
20" x 9.75"
oil and pastel on canvas, 2011

The lion on his pants may have to move to the background, maybe one on the left and one on the right, but here's the first painting for the Top 100 2011, the first of four Kirks I intend to do over the next week or so. Now I think of it I believe one lion should be painted black and the other white. In the photo I painted from, two lions are embroidered on his shirt but I liked the shirt without lions when the painting progressed. Kind of a Star Trek outfit it turned out, an homage to Captain Kirk maybe?  

Does Your House Have Lions? is title of a Rahsaan disc and also the title of a blog on Kirk by May Cobb "dedicated to the enduring spirit that is Rahsaan Roland Kirk" as she puts it. She's working on Kirk's biography and in search of anecdotes about his life. If you know of any... please visit her site (do it anyway if you—and how can you not—have a warm heart for Rahsaan.)

One of the four Kirk tunes in the list so far is Many Blessings from The Inflated Tear. This painting then will be forever linked to that track. It a sweet title, a beautiful way to get a new series of 100 paintings on its way.

Bright Moments

Top 100 1999: #12 
Rahsaan Roland Kirk – Rip Rig and Panic
8.6" x 8.8", ink on paper, 1999

I can hardly fathom it but a time of nearly two months has passed without any interest or enjoyment in listening to, and seeking out new music. Needless to say that in stead of my usual routine in the studio, I have not painted any material for the new music year yet. A bright moment in my dull musical universe has been the music of Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Of the six tracks likely to feature in the new Top 100 2011, four are from the Ohio born jazz man. For weeks on end the only music I played were his The Inflated Tear and Bright Moments albums. All the other music I've heard in that spell seemed lackluster by comparison. It has been a joy to paint Kirk in the past and it's starting to itch now. I got a few canvases ready to go and tonight I'll find out what it's like to paint after such a long dry spell. Inspired by the music of Kirk and some of my own bright moments illustrating him (like the 12 year old ink drawing above) I'll get busy. Welcome aboard dear followers, here we go again!