21.
Rahsaan Roland Kirk – Theme for the Eulipions
Rahsaan
Roland Kirk, oil on canvas, 2019
This Kirk recording is one that has not previously featured in a Top 100: Theme for the Eulipians. I first heard the tune as an instrumental through a performance together with Gil Evans. A marvelous performance late in Kirk's life. He had already suffered a stroke and could only play with one hand. Still a virtuoso. The song, as it is a song, appears on The Return of the 5000 Lb. Man and is written by Kirk together with Betty Neals, who wrote the lyrics. Neals is also heard on the recording reciting these lyrics and Maeretha Stewart sings. The album was recorded in 1976.
This Kirk recording is one that has not previously featured in a Top 100: Theme for the Eulipians. I first heard the tune as an instrumental through a performance together with Gil Evans. A marvelous performance late in Kirk's life. He had already suffered a stroke and could only play with one hand. Still a virtuoso. The song, as it is a song, appears on The Return of the 5000 Lb. Man and is written by Kirk together with Betty Neals, who wrote the lyrics. Neals is also heard on the recording reciting these lyrics and Maeretha Stewart sings. The album was recorded in 1976.
22.
Antonia Vasil'evna Skalygina – Alterateur de voix Kal'ni
Antonia
Vasil'evna Skalygina? oil on canvas, 2019
The source of the above painting is a photograph by Henri Lecomte used as the cover for the cd Nivkh, Ujl'ta, Siberie 6, Sakhaline: Musique vocale et instrumentale (Buda Records, Musique du Monde, 1996.) I do not have the cd and therefore I can't say for sure if the person depicted is indeed Antonia Skalygina or not but I like to believe it is. It makes sense. The track in the list of 100 is called Alterateur de voix Kal'ni, voice modifier. The instrument shown could indeed be that modifier but perhaps it is a jew's harp (in which case the performer would probably be Ol'ga Anatol'evna Njavan.)
The source of the above painting is a photograph by Henri Lecomte used as the cover for the cd Nivkh, Ujl'ta, Siberie 6, Sakhaline: Musique vocale et instrumentale (Buda Records, Musique du Monde, 1996.) I do not have the cd and therefore I can't say for sure if the person depicted is indeed Antonia Skalygina or not but I like to believe it is. It makes sense. The track in the list of 100 is called Alterateur de voix Kal'ni, voice modifier. The instrument shown could indeed be that modifier but perhaps it is a jew's harp (in which case the performer would probably be Ol'ga Anatol'evna Njavan.)
23. Sonic
Youth – Shaking Hell
Kim Gordon,
oil on canvas, 2019
The Woman in the Band (2): The punk-rock movement empowered women to pick up instruments traditionally played mostly by men, and to form their own bands. The process towards gender equality in rock music started in 1976 in England. Kim Gordon, bass player in Sonic Youth was married to Thurston Moore. In Sonic Youth all members were equal and when the marriage between Gordon and Moore ended in 2011 the band split up. Shaking Hell is from SY's first album Confusion is Sex from 1983. It's Gordon's song.
The Woman in the Band (2): The punk-rock movement empowered women to pick up instruments traditionally played mostly by men, and to form their own bands. The process towards gender equality in rock music started in 1976 in England. Kim Gordon, bass player in Sonic Youth was married to Thurston Moore. In Sonic Youth all members were equal and when the marriage between Gordon and Moore ended in 2011 the band split up. Shaking Hell is from SY's first album Confusion is Sex from 1983. It's Gordon's song.
24. Ana and
Asuncion Caraballo – Canta para pilar maiz
Ana Caraballo, oil on
canvas, 2018
Canta para Pilar Maiz is a work song from Magarita
Island in Venezuela recorded by Francisco Carreño and Miguel Cardona in 1949.
When I painted the same image in 2013 I must have missed the information
concerning the identity of the singer when I tagged the painting as Venezuelan
Girl (I should have named her woman instead of girl). I assume that the
photographer responsible for this tiny black & white image in the liner
notes of volume 9 of The Columbia World
Library of Folk and Primitive Music would be either Carreño or Cardona.
Maize is the staple of the inhabitants of Margarita Island. The authors also
credited Asuncion Caraballo as musician but I have hard time making out a
second person on the recording.
25. Cat
Power – In Your Face
Cat Power,
oil on canvas, 2019
It took me a little while to warm up to Cat Power's new album Wanderer, but now I consider it one of the (her) best ever. Besides the title track camping out at number one, In Your Face and Robbin Hood have also entered the list for this year. The album is on top of the album count and Cat Power on top of the musician count for the year.
It took me a little while to warm up to Cat Power's new album Wanderer, but now I consider it one of the (her) best ever. Besides the title track camping out at number one, In Your Face and Robbin Hood have also entered the list for this year. The album is on top of the album count and Cat Power on top of the musician count for the year.
26.
Yekuana Fertitlty Chant
Ye'kuana
(Makiritare) Indian, Venezuela, oil on canvas,
2019
The Ye'kuana woman illustrates Yucca Fertility Song recorded by Walter Coppens and found on the album Anthology of Central & South American Indian Music (Folkways, 1975.) The song is a chant by women to stop evil spirits from affecting the yucca plant (the tree of life) recited during planting and harvesting. [W. Coppens]
The Ye'kuana woman illustrates Yucca Fertility Song recorded by Walter Coppens and found on the album Anthology of Central & South American Indian Music (Folkways, 1975.) The song is a chant by women to stop evil spirits from affecting the yucca plant (the tree of life) recited during planting and harvesting. [W. Coppens]
27.
Asháninka songs
Asháninka
(Campa) Indian, Peru, oil on canvas, 2019
Two photographs by Charles Kroehle taken in 1885 and 1888 were sources for two paintings. They illustrate two songs in the Top 100 that were recorded by Enrique Pinello, a Peruvian ethnomusicologist and composer. The two tracks, Shipibo Song (see #11) and Ashaninka Songs, appear on the CD The Spirit Cries: Music of the Rainforests of South America and the Caribbean, compiled by Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart for the Library of Congress. The Asháninka, or Campa Indians live nowadays scattered throughout the Amazon region that borders Brazil.
Two photographs by Charles Kroehle taken in 1885 and 1888 were sources for two paintings. They illustrate two songs in the Top 100 that were recorded by Enrique Pinello, a Peruvian ethnomusicologist and composer. The two tracks, Shipibo Song (see #11) and Ashaninka Songs, appear on the CD The Spirit Cries: Music of the Rainforests of South America and the Caribbean, compiled by Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart for the Library of Congress. The Asháninka, or Campa Indians live nowadays scattered throughout the Amazon region that borders Brazil.
28. Marija
Nikoforovna Ceculina – Chukc song (chant et jajar)
Henri Lecomte, oil on canvas, 2019
Henri Lecomte (1938-2018) died last year. I just figured that out while searching for biographical data on him. Darn, last year I painted and wrote about another French ethnomusicologist Charles Duvelle and he had just passed away in 2017, I didn't even know it then. Henri Lecomte (Google keeps thinking I misspelled his name and I'm searching for the tennis star Henri Leconte) was, beside his work in the field, also a musician and director. He played a host of instruments among them many traditional central Asian ones. The last thirty years of his life were dedicated to research into the music of the Arctic Siberian regions. He wrote a number of papers on the subject and his series of cd releases simply called Siberia consists of eleven volumes, all released on Buda Music (Musique de Monde) between 1991 and 2009. They're hard to get by. I have two (plus some downloads of individual tracks from other discs in the series) both ordered via amazon.fr. There are seven recordings made by Henri Lecomte in the Top 100 this year.
Henri Lecomte (1938-2018) died last year. I just figured that out while searching for biographical data on him. Darn, last year I painted and wrote about another French ethnomusicologist Charles Duvelle and he had just passed away in 2017, I didn't even know it then. Henri Lecomte (Google keeps thinking I misspelled his name and I'm searching for the tennis star Henri Leconte) was, beside his work in the field, also a musician and director. He played a host of instruments among them many traditional central Asian ones. The last thirty years of his life were dedicated to research into the music of the Arctic Siberian regions. He wrote a number of papers on the subject and his series of cd releases simply called Siberia consists of eleven volumes, all released on Buda Music (Musique de Monde) between 1991 and 2009. They're hard to get by. I have two (plus some downloads of individual tracks from other discs in the series) both ordered via amazon.fr. There are seven recordings made by Henri Lecomte in the Top 100 this year.
29.
Bongwater – The Power of Pussy
Kramer, oil
on canvas, 2019
Kramer is Mark Kramer (born Stephen Michael Bonner in 1958). He used the single name Kramer throughout his career. (I wonder if Kramer in the hugely popular TV sitcom series Seinfeld was inspired by the musician Kramer.) With Ann Magnuson he formed Bongwater in 1986, started a relation (while his estranged wife was pregnant, hence the baby in the painting) in 1991 and disbanded the band when the two broke up in 1992. Kramer got back together with his wife then, and Magnuson sued Kramer for breach of contract.
Kramer is Mark Kramer (born Stephen Michael Bonner in 1958). He used the single name Kramer throughout his career. (I wonder if Kramer in the hugely popular TV sitcom series Seinfeld was inspired by the musician Kramer.) With Ann Magnuson he formed Bongwater in 1986, started a relation (while his estranged wife was pregnant, hence the baby in the painting) in 1991 and disbanded the band when the two broke up in 1992. Kramer got back together with his wife then, and Magnuson sued Kramer for breach of contract.
30.
Vonariva Lokanga & Tarkilava – Mozika Madrehitra
Vonarino, oil
on canvas, 2019
One change in the field of ethnomusicology in the last few decades has been to provide much more contextual information with recordings than was the case earlier. All musicians on Canadian 'field-recorrding artist' Charles Brook's Fanafody album are portrayed and also photographed. A photo of Vonarino (Vonarino Avaradova Amboaniotelo Tulear) made it to the cover of the album and the song in my Top 100 Mozika Mandrehita is the opener on side A. Vonarino plays a home-made three string fiddle (lokanga). Recorded in Madagascar in 2006/7.
One change in the field of ethnomusicology in the last few decades has been to provide much more contextual information with recordings than was the case earlier. All musicians on Canadian 'field-recorrding artist' Charles Brook's Fanafody album are portrayed and also photographed. A photo of Vonarino (Vonarino Avaradova Amboaniotelo Tulear) made it to the cover of the album and the song in my Top 100 Mozika Mandrehita is the opener on side A. Vonarino plays a home-made three string fiddle (lokanga). Recorded in Madagascar in 2006/7.
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