Top 100 2019-3: 71-89

71. Group led by Ahem Mediferai – Tuareg Medicinal Chant

Ahem Mediferai, oil on canvas, 2020

From the album West Africa: Drum, Chant & Instrumental Music (1976). Chant performed by three male and four female Tuareg singers led by Ahem Mediferai. Recorded in northern Mali by Stephen Jay. The strong diagonal in the photograph of Ahem Mediferai on the back of the album, and its artist's impression on the front, made me experiment once again with the diagonal 'playing card' (mirroring) axis.

72. Alena Alexeeva Uican – Chant et tambour se cadre jajar 

Tamara Ivikovna Sajnav (cover image of Sibérie 4), oil on canvas, 2020

The notes to this song by Alena Uican from the cd Sibérie 4 – Kamchatka: dance drums from the Siberian Far East are odd and short (by Henri Lecomte): "Born in Rekinniki in 1969. She does not work so she can raise her child. This song evokes movements of sea mammals, which she imitates while singing." Life is very mysterious; the more you learn, the less sense it all makes. The image in the painting is of a Koryak woman who appears on the cd cover. The cd is dedicated to the music of the Koryak, the instrument seen is shaman's frame drum as is Uican's.

73. Dillinger – Marijuana in My Brain

Dillinger, oil on canvas, 2020

Cocaine in my Brain was a huge Top 40 hit during my coming of age years in the Netherlands. It made it all the way to #1 in 1976. I'm sure the single Marijuana in My Brain from 1977 was intended to replicate that success but failed to do so. Curious given the Dutch affection for marijuana. The Dutch band Doe Maar scored a hit in 1980 with their marijuana anthem Nederwiet. I bought the Dillinger single in 1987 (I used to write a date on 45s). Dillinger, named as such by the legendary Lee Perry, was born Lester Bullock on June 25, 1953 in Kingston, Jamaica.

74. Wagogo Soothing Song

Zeze duo, oil on canvas, 2020

The zeze is a stringed instrument found throughout Tanzania. The Wagogo of central Tanzania are especially associated with the instrument. The Wagogo Soothing Song can be found on the LP Africa: Ceremonial & Folk Music [Explorer, 1975] and was recorded by David Fenshawe. Two zeze players, a drummer, and mixed choir can be heard in a song that was intended to lull a child to sleep who couldn't. I doubt it if it worked; the performance is quite ecstatic but the zeze has a very soothing sound.

75. Tanya Tagaq w/Kronos Quartet – Nunavut

Tanya Tagaq, oil on canvas, 2019

It's odd that when you believe something, have an opinion, how hard it is to let go. Beliefs are a stubborn thing. Beliefs close doors, never knowing what's beyond. I believed that I wasn't interested in "new-age" music, or rather fusion of traditional and modern music. I thought of it as faux spirituality. I concede and tend now to an opposing view: Under the umbrella of new-age are a myriad of experiments that allow an opening to investigate music's origins. Music, as art, is now probably in closer harmony with its own essence that it has been for centuries. The revelation came watching a YouTube video of the collaboration between Tanya Tagaq and The Kronos Quartette. Tanya Tagaq's background is in Canada's Inuit throat singing tradition. She went through art school and established herself as an experimental avant-garde musician. The Kronos Quartet, for reasons I stated above, I never paid much attention to. This performance opened my eyes to the possibilities of modern production techniques and electronics combined with traditional forms. The avant-garde—ethnopoetics—approaches a communion with the eternal spirit. Energy & intelligence (=imagination). 

76. Ka Ve and Vo Hoang – A'reng

Duo A'reng, oil on canvas, 2018

One man sings into a reed the other end of which ends in a woman's mouth that functions as a resonance chamber. The A'reng is traditionally performed by a mixed couple. The tradition has now become extinct. From Strange Instruments of Vietnam by Nicolas Bras: "The A'reng is a simple reed instrument played by two players, one blows into the mouth of the second (who features as the resonance chamber)." From a video by The Vietnamese Institute of Musicology, Hanoi, Vietnam.

77. Ulahi sings while scraping sago pith

Ulahi, oil on canvas, 2018

Ulahi is heard cutting sago, a staple for the inhabitants of the mountainous Bosavi rainforest in Papua New Guinea. It's a work song. Indeed singing makes work go faster, makes it easier, less tiresome. The cutting of the food becomes rhythmic as if it were a game. As a new mother Ulahi carries her child with her wherever she goes. When she has to work, the baby must be set aside. The baby cries, Ulahi sings, the baby stops crying. Ulahi was recorded by Steven Field in 1989 in the Kulali area of the Bosavi rain forest of Papua New Guinea. From the CD set: Bosavi: Rainforest Music from Papua New Guinea, a three cd anthology by Smithsonian Folkways (1981).

78. Sun Ra All Stars – Happy Birthday/Stars that Shine Darkly

Sun Ra, oil on canvas, 2020
Sun Ra was born in Birmingham, AL as Herman Poole Blount in 1914 but he never liked to be reminded of that fact; "That is his-story, my story is my-stery." He claimed to be from Saturn but returned to Birmingham when his health was failing and died there in 1993. Searching the web for an image to paint I came across an interesting story by Mike Walsh. I settled for the illustration Walsh used, and the article directed me to the movie Space is the Place that I diligently watched. He's out there, for sure. The film features the Arkestra with singer June Tyson. The title track, which appears during the end credits, made sure that Sun Ra reappears in the top 100 2020. The entry for 2019, illustrated here, is from a concert in Berlin in 1983. The track is called Happy Birthday/Stars that Shine Darkly and the Arkestra features Archie Shepp on tenor.

79. Georgia: Greek Orthodox

Assyrian Soloists of Greek Orthodox Church Choir in Georgia, oil on canvas, 2020

Very little religious music this year. There's Tibetan monks and this track of Greek Orthodox choir music from Georgia. The painting is based on a still from a video of a mass in Georgia attended by the Pope. It's from 2016 while the recordings on the Folkways sampler Music of the World's Peoples were recorded in the 1950s. I don't think the music changed much over time. From the liner notes on the Folkways album: "Intense choral music which preserves the 'organum' style of medieval Christian music, combined with modes preserved from Byzantine culture."

80. Bapende Work Song

Bapende Chief, oil on canvas, 2020

The Bapende Work Song found on Folk Music of the Western Congo is a work song that was performed in the process of villagers building a house for their chief and was recorded by Leo A. Verwilghen in 1954. A photograph of a xylophone player is the only of the Bapende people included in the booklet that all Folkways' series come with. A Google image search on the Bapende yield an incredibly rich array of photos associated with Bapende ceremony. The song however is not a sacred song so I refrained from using any of the images showing those ceremonial masks and costumes that are associated with the Bapende. While usually shying away from using images owned by giant image databases such as Getty, I settled for a small black and white photograph made by Michel Huet and owned by Getty Images. The fabric used on the chief's hat has the same pattern as the headdress on one of the Rundi women that I painted not too long ago. The pattern is made of triangles that create intricate negative space patterns.