The 100 Greatest Recordings Ever: 24, Muddy Waters

The 100 Greatest Recordings Ever: 25, The Stooges

The 100 Greatest Recordings Ever: 26, Maria Callas

The 100 Greatest Recordings Ever: 27, Lucille Bogan

The 100 Greatest Recordings Ever: 28, Robert Johnson

The 100 Greatest Recordings Ever: 29, Baka women and girls

The 100 Greatest Recordings Ever: 30 – Thelonious Monk

Run for Your Life

M.I.A.
24" x 12"
oil on wood, 2012

You may recall this very same image of M.I.A., executed with watercolors, pass the revue less than two weeks ago as #35 in the series The 100 Greatest Recordings of all times. The song Born Free was #2 in the Top 100 2010 and may well end up at number one this year. The music and text of Born Free are superimposed on a beat by the band Suicide. Written by Martin Rev and Alan Vega, the beat was the theme from the song Ghost Rider on Suicide's first LP (1977). I have that one on CD, it's a great album. I do not have 2010 M.I.A.'s Maya CD on which Born Free appears but have the song on a compilation CD issued by the Believer magazine (The 2010 Music Issue). It is now the fourth time I painted this image of M.I.A. with the long red T-shirt worn as a dress. I also used it for Paper Planes in the Top 100 2009, Born Free in 2010, and the aforementioned 100 Greatest Recordings. The inscription on that T-shirt I only used in the two recent paintings. I reads: RUN FOR YOUR LIFE. An appropriate line watching the video for Born Free. It's the most horrifying and violent video I've ever seen. Directed by Romain Gavras, the 9 minute film depicts a genocide against red haired people. The video was inspired, no doubt, by M.I.A.'s own political cause, that of the Tamil liberation in Sri Lanka.

The Master Musicians of Urfa

Mukim Tahir
24" x 12"
oil on wood, 2012

Three master musicians of Urfa are recognized as such on a CD with that title. Urfu is a place in Turkey near the Syrian border. Kel Hamza, Mukim Tahir, and Bekçi Bekir, are the names of the three. I have one song of each—from the site Bodega Pop, where I found this CD reviewed—and all three songs are just beautiful, they all may end up in the Top 100 this year. (Bodega Pop offers a full download of the CD but I never download a whole CD. I usually take the sample from a site, if anything. I would end up with tens of thousands of songs on my iTunes playlist if I would download everything I like. I just don't see the point of doing this. If I like to listen to a certain music on my computer I go to the source rather than to try to have the digital map of it. Sure, I collect music, but what I collect are material items, purchased in a store. I would buy that CD Three Master Musicians of Urfa if I'd found it for sale for under $10.) Mukim Tahir is the first one from the three to secure a place in the Top 100 2012, therefor the first to paint. Mukim Tahir lived a tragic life. He was in prison 10 years, his wife died of TB, he was an alcoholic out of prison, and he died in 1946 in his mid 40s. He is still remembered today as one of the all-time great Urfali singers (info from Bodega Pop).

Little by little I learn about these musicians that are out there in all those pockets of the world. One by one I come across these legendary singers that have given a voice to regions of the earth that endures through times. One region at the time I become acquainted with the world's political map. Urfu would be another place in the world I like to visit (but maybe not just yet at this time).

2011 Paintings for sale

Don't worry, I'll only do this once a year. The paintings from the exhibition The Top 100 2011 are back in my possession, back from the Swing Space Gallery in Columbus, Ohio. I copied the price list from the gallery and provided internal links to those posts that show a reproduction of a painting as well as adding reproductions of the missing ones. If you're interested in owning one or more of the paintings in this series please write to me at vanboekel1@gmail.com and we'll discuss the handling and payment via e-mail. The prices are in US Dollars and shipping within the US is included in the price. All works on paper are framed.

TOP 100 2011 Price List

1. Beth Orton 800.00                                                                                               
2. Romanian village musicians 950.00                                                 
3. Francis Bebey 650.00                                                        
4. Rahsaan Roland Kirk 650.00                                                                   
5. Rahsaan Roland Kirk 275.00                                                                               
6. Erika Marozsán  450.00                                        
7. Muchatera Mujuru  450.00    
8. Beth Orton  650.00                                                                                      
9. Amy Alwood  NFS                       
10. Oliver Lake  450.00                                         
11. Shankar Jaikishan  450.00, no photo
12. Shafiq Ghani  650.00                  
13. György Ligeti  450.00                                                                     
14. Francis Bebey  450.00  
15. Jennie Williams and Nathalie Frost  650.00              
16. N’Goundi girls  950.00                                                                          
17. Be Good Tanyas  650.00                         
18. Folk Music of Hungary, cover  950.00   
19. Reet Hendrikson  950.00    
20. Gato Barbieri  750.00                                                                              
21. Kipsigis Woman  950.00                                
22. India National Sitar Ensemble  750.00
23. Chukchi Shaman  650.00                                                                     
24. Instruments and Music of Bolivia, cover  950.00                  
25. Time and Temperature  750.00     
26. Hungarian Girls  950.00
27. Ilunga Patrice  650.00 
28. Watazumido–Shuso  450.00              
29. Lata Mangeshkar  450.00                                                                   
30. Cold Storage Band  450.00                                 
31. Thelonious Monk  NFS
32. Japanese Dancer  450.00
33. Ayşe  950.00  
34. Mapuche mother and child  950.00       
35. David Munrow   250.00 
36. Phương Dung  950.00                               
37. John Lee Hooker  SOLD 
38. Egyptian women  950.00                                                  
39. Swiss accordion players  700.00                                                                       
40. Gabus player  650.00                            
41. Greenham women  850.00
42. Takahashi children  950.00                
43. Music of the Comoro Islands, cover  750.00
44. Anne Grimes 650.00                                                                                                
45. Çumbus player  700.00   
46. Cat Power  850.00
47. Efe pygmies  950.00        
48. Folk Music of Rumania, cover  950.00                                                
49. Chris Menist  275.00
50. Amy Winehouse  SOLD  
51. Bob Stewart  450.00      
52. Miki Tanabe 450.00                                                                                     
53. Rahsaan Roland Kirk  SOLD   
54. Rahsaan Roland Kirk  700.00   
55. Hugh Tracey  450.00
56. Albanian girl  750.00   
57. Princess Constance Magogo Ka Dinuzulu  450.00
58. Luo Chief  300.00                                                                             
59. Saliha  950.00                                                         
60. Mulatu Astatqé  450.00                                                                           
61. Robert “Nighthawk” Johnson 750.00                                                  
62. S.E. Rogie  1,400.00     
63. Jesus Rodriguez  450.00   
64. Maria Callas  275.00        
65. Street musicians from Santa Clara la Lagua  950.00
66. Robert Johnson  SOLD 
67. Guitar Slim Green  450.00                     
68. Le Mystère des Voix Bulgare choir  950.00
69. Yoselle Rosenblatt  650.00   
70. György Ligeti  400.00
71. Jim Carroll Band  300.00 
72. Townes van Zandt  650.00
73. Sister Rosetta Tharpe  300.00
74. King Stitt  300.00
75. Rita Abatzi  600.00
76. Anonymous street performer, Java  450.00
77. Image from Kroncong 650.00   
78. Issa Coulibaly 600.00                                                     



Cover image 
Harp Music of the Andes
7" x 4", oil on canvas, 2012

79. Harp Music of the Andes, cover  250.00                                  
80. Anna Thorhallsdottir  750.00
81. Marie Danek  250.00   
82. Asakawa Maki  650.00       
83. Oliver Lake  650.00                
84. Shabba Ranks  375.00
85. Junior Reid  375.00



Paul N'Gozi
8" x 3.25"
oil on wood, 2012

86. Paul Ngozi  200.00
87. Bob Dylan  SOLD
88. Jolie Holland  800.00
89. Kipsigis woman  750.00
90. Skvlt  600.00
91. The Notorious B.I.G.  375.00
92. John Holt  375.00
93. Raimo Kangro  375.00
94. Tony Schwartz  450.00



Duke of Iron
10.75" x 4.25"
oil on wood, 2012

95. Duke of Iron  200.00
96. Michael Hurley  375.00
97. Lotte Lenya  SOLD
98. Delia Derbyshire  600.00
99. Yugoslavian woman  700.00



Yugoslavian woman in 
traditional dress
13" x 7.5"
oil on wood, 2011

100. Malcolm Mooney  375.00

The 100 Greatest Recordings Ever: 31, Kurt Weill

The 100 Greatest Recordings Ever: 32, The Sex Pistols

The 100 Greatest Recordings Ever: 33, Albert Ayler

The 100 Greatest Recordings Ever: 34, Bob Dylan

The 100 Greatest Recordings Ever: 35, M.I.A.

The 100 Greatest Recordings Ever: 36, Effisio Melis

The 100 Greatest Recordings Ever: 37, Harmonica Frank

The 100 Greatest Recordings Ever: 38, Bozie Sturdivant

The 100 Greatest Recordings Ever: 39, Miles Davis

The 100 Greatest Recordings Ever, 40, Neil Young

The 100 Greatest Recordings Ever: 41, Yma Sumac

Today I also wrote about Yma Sumac on my blog http://musicalthriftstoretreasures.blogspot.com/
It includes a sound file for Chuncho.