Top 100 2012: #76-100

Here's then the fourth and final part of the Top 100 2012. Click on an artist name to view the original post. Note that not all song have a write up available. To see the first three parts click on the links below.

Top 100 2012, #1-25
Top 100 2012, #26-50 
Top 100 2012, #51-75

76. Alela Diane – Dry Grass and Shadows                       
77. A fényes nap immán elnyugodott (evening song)       
78. Pussy Riot – Putin Zassal
79. Edith Piaf – Hymne à l’Amour   
80. Awalom Gebremariam – Desdes (track 1)
81. MOM – Boner Party (Tonite)   
82. Rodriguez – Sugar Man
83. Catherine Lara – L’Hiver   
84. John Cage – 33 ⅓   
85. Yank Rachell – Peach Tree Blues
86. Burning Spear – Institution       
87. Troupe Artistique de Tillabery – Sahel Vert                   
88. Ruska Bozhilova and Anka Balabanova – Tri mi zvezdi   
89. Nanku and Bachau – Virahā (Milkman’s Traditional Song)
90. Song from In Salah, Sahara        
91. Kunimaipa Cannibal Song               
92. Maliot Radio Orchestra – Macedonski Narodni Ora   
93. Bob Dylan – It’s Alright Ma, I’m Only Bleeding
94. Lonnie Johnson – Too Late to Cry       
95. Karin Stenberg  – Joik about reindeer   
96. Chikha Aicha el Hertitia – Âaita Baidaouiya   
97. Nieves Quintero – Linda Campesma                       
98. Ham & Scram – Pretty Polly
99. Hirut Bekele – Track 1
100. Yoko Ono – Air Male

The Far North

Sami writer Karin Stenberg
11" x 8.5", 2013
watercolor, pen, pencil on paper

There haven't been too many traditional songs from Scandinavia in the Top 100 and thus I haven't painted too many folk costumes either. After painting this Siberian Chukchi shaman last year, this is only the second time I recall painting a fur coat. But the Karin Stenberg depicted here is not a musician, she's an early 20th century Sami author, she may be related to the Karin Stenberg that sings a joik about reindeer half a century later, I don't know. But what I know is that there wasn't a picture available of the Karin Stenberg who sings three tracks on the LP Music From the Far North to paint from. There are pictures on the booklet in the album, but she's not on it. Whose picture is on it though, is the Finnish kantele player Juho Kareinen, a picture all too familiar. In 2007 I painted an anonymous kantele player to illustrate a 1930s kantele recording by Ulla Kantajavouri, and now that anonymous musicians is no longer anonymous any more. Since 2007 was before I started this blog I'll attach a picture of that painting below. Music From the Far North, that I bought last year, is by far the most interesting LP of the 10 or 12 I have dedicated to Scandinavian traditional music. On Musical Thrift Store Treasures I dedicated a page to this album. You can listen there to Stenberg's joik too. The following is what I had to say about it.

They're not quite the true academic field recording records, but much more authentic than the Souvenir from... records tourists used to gather. They're field recordings that are sold commercially. They're an important part of my record collection which is becoming more and more like a stamp collection that doesn't have a topic but holds stamps from all over the world. A collection that's more about diversity than about depth. Records like the one above were owned by people that had a serious interest in some geographical entity, not quite an academic interest but certainly well beyond a tourist's interest in the music of a region. They're records of traditional music, typically played not by the areas biggest stars, but not by the remote and isolated rural population either. The musicians are the in-between musicians, semi-professional, well regarded locally, that would perform in regional cultural festivals. Music from the Far North features traditional music out of Finland and from Sweden. It features the solemn Finnish music on the kantele, and some wild fiddling gatherings from Sweden. There's enough excitement in the music on this record to last a midsummer night but my pick of the litter is a Lappish joiks that is featured at the end of the record. They're not the most interesting joiks I've ever heard, they're not the best tracks on the record, but they're joiks. There aren't that many joik recordings in the world. Joiks are the age old musical singing traditions of the Sami people of Northern Scandinavia. The singing sounds a lot like the chanting of Native Americans. The Sami are remote descendents of the Chukchi people, a handful of whom are believed to have crossed the Bering Sea and are the common ancestors of all American Indians.
The singer of the joik featured in the Top 100 is Karin Stenberg. She was recorded by Deben Bhattacharya in or before 1967 in Arvidsjaur, Sweden .

p.s. I've never been to Sweden but I have a Volvo. I learned yesterday that if you buy a new Volvo, directly from the factory, they'll fly you over, put you up, and ship the car back for you. Now my Volvo is getting pretty old...

Juho Kareinen
12" x 8"
oil on wood, 2007

The Columbia World Library of Folk and Primitive Music

Harratin women
11" x 8.5"
watercolor on paper

Besides being able to add two volumes from the 18 part The Columbia World Library of Folk and Primitive Music series released in the 1950s under supervision of Alan Lomax, to my record collection, I indulged this past year in all of the releases in the series through the blog site The World's Jukebox on WordPress. The Top 100 of 2012 then naturally reflects this preoccupation with a fifth of all music coming from this series. Volume 2 is dedicated to French West Africa and a subsection of that collection to the Berbers in the Sahara desert. Four examples of nomadic Berber tribes are featured on the album, two by the Tuareg (music for camel tournaments), one of the Orfela tribe, and a song by Harratin women from In Salah. The latter being in the Top 100 and illustrated here. The song was recorded by the Henry Lhote expedition of 1948. The liner notes to the song read: "These Harratin women, with their strong Negro blood, come from In Salah, where Sudanese influence is pronounced. Nevertheless they sing in Arabic, to the accompaniment of a large frame-drum of North African type, and in two almost parallel parts, a form of part-singing possibly of Negro origin."

Epic poetry from India

Alain Daniélou
11" x 8.5", 2013
watercolor, pen on paper

Alain Daniélou (1907-1994) was a French musicologist and Indiologist. His contributions to the history and philosophy of Indian religion are numerous but the part of his accolades that interests me most is his work as an ethno-musicolgist on the Indian subcontinent. He recorded India's traditional music extensively throughout the mid 20th century. Some of these recordings (from the early 50s) appear on the album The Columbia World Library of Folk and Primitive Music, Vol XII: India. As always with the Columbia series that were edited by Alan Lomax, the music comes with a load of explanatory texts and photos. There was however no picture of Nanku, Bachau, or the Nāgārā player that perform on Virahā, an example of the oral epic poetry traditions of the Ahir people. The track was recorded in Benares (or Varanasi) where Daniélou was a professor at the Hindi University at the time.

The Bozhilova Portrait

Ruska Bozhilova
11" x 8.5", 2013
Watercolor, pencil on paper

This portrait, a bit anemic, of the Bulgarian folk singer Ruska Bozhilova, was drawn rather quickly, without much thought going into it. That said there's always thought and I make an effort to be aware of the thoughts going into a painting, any painting. So here's an account of the thought processes as they occurred on a typical Top 100 painting. First I do a little research concerning the song, the circumstances of the recording, the biography of the musician, and so on. Most importantly I search for an appropriate image to illustrate the song in the Top 100 list. Typically this is a portrait of the musician or singer but sometimes the musicians are anonymous or very obscure. It did not occur to me I would find a photo of the singer Ruska Bozhilova, but I did, it was right there on the liner notes to the album The Columbia World Library of Folk and Primitive Music: Bulgaria that were compiled by Alan Lomax. Before I paint (and certainly before I write these notes) I read up on some information about the song, and often play it. This is to get focused, to gain some sort of empathy with the musicians and music to be illustrated. When I found this photo of Ruska Bozhilova, I felt good about it. It was a good photo. I had expected to be searching for a while to find anything but those liner notes were the first thing I consulted in this process. So this part was quick. When I investigated the photo I was about to use in a drawing, the first thing that came to mind was that the features of the singer reminded me of those of footballer Christiano Ronaldo. It helped me if there's some sort of familiarity on the onset. Ms. Bozhilova's portrait ended up not looking anything like Christiano Ronaldo, but that's not the point. By the time I was done I was familiar enough with the singer's features that I simply forgot the association with Ronaldo's. Studying that photo I remarked in my mind that this was going to be an easy one. And it was. The whole process from doing the research until the photographing or scanning of the finished product took all but an hour. The usual time frame is more like four hours (for drawings like these that is –the paintings I did earlier in the year for the Top 100 2012 series may take well over a day's work). The process of making it was smooth, from the first pencil lines, through the coloring and the addition of back yard textures (yes, I take every single drawing outside to add a natural backdrop to the portrait). I didn't err or mess up at any stage, but I didn't challenge myself much either. The drawing was exactly like I had planned. The illustration for Tri Mi Zvezdi (three stars) a field recording of a Bulgarian work song made in the fifties by A.L.Lloyd was done. Only a few more left to do!

Nigerien Youth

Festival National de la Jeunesse Nigerienne (CD cover)
11" x 8.5", watercolor, pen on paper, 2013

I knew that Nigerians are from Nigeria but I had to look up what the people of Niger were called. I have to look up a lot of things for this blog. Once, along time ago, I wrote that Van Morrison was from Dublin, while in fact he's from Belfast. Wrong country, stupid mistake, so I vowed I would fact check before I throw anything towards an audience. I'm sure there's still a lot of error, but I do my best. I looked up the name Tillabery (which should be spelled Tillabéri) to be able to say anything sensible about the Troupe Artistique de Tillabery, the name of a group that participated in a festival called Festival National de la Jeunesse Nigerienne, featured at #87 in the Top 100 2012. Tillabéri is a city and region in western Nigeria, in which Zarma is the predominant language. Sahel Vert (green Sahel desert) is the title of a piece performed by the Troupe Artistique on an LP produced with recordings from the festival. The LP was yet another gem I came across on line courtesy of Ghost Capital. The background singers in the "troupe" belong to a certain Samaria organization, a national association of young women (whose language is Hausa). So I don't know if the language in the song is Zarma, or Hausa, but I know for a fact that some French is thrown in.

Yank Rachell

Yank Rachell
11" x 8.5", 2013
watercolor, pen on paper

It's totally subjective and by chance how most songs enter a Top 100 list in a given year. How for example Yank Rachell got in it this year is illustrated by the following story: I enjoy it when one of the blogs I follow publishes an item about a record I have myself. It doesn't happen too often because they're all only talking about obscure records but occasionally, maybe once or twice a year, I see a record cover pop up that I also can find on my own shelves. Especially the collection of Ghost Capital seems to have a good amount of overlap with my own. The last crossover occurred in October of 2012, when Ghost Capital posted an item on the record Let's Get Loose, a collection of blues tunes from the beginning up to the 1940s. They included a music file of Peach Tree Blues by Yank Rachelle, that immediately scored enough points to be included in this year's (we're still talking 2012) Top 100. I took the record off the shelf, played, and read all about it. It was the first time for Rachell to be included under his own name, and the first time playing a guitar as well. Other recordings I have by Yank Rachell are as a sideman for Sleepy John Estes. He played mandolin on several Top 100 entries under Estes' name in the past. The harmonica heard in the 1941 recording is played by nobody less than Sonny Boy Williamson.

WDNA 88.9 FM

I am honored to be the featured artist in the Fine Arts Concert Series hosted by WDNA Serious Jazz 88.9 FM, Miami. I will be presenting the Top 100 2012 in its entirety in the WDNA Jazz Gallery. Numbers 1 through 50 are oil paintings mounted on the wall, and numbers 51 through 100, watercolors in a portfolio on a table. The exhibition will run from May 25 through July 13. The opening night, Saturday May 25, is an event organized by WDNA. It starts at 7:30 PM, when I will give an informal talk and start playing the countdown. This then will be followed at 8:30 with a concert by the great jazz drummer Carl Allen. He will perform with his quartet that night and I am really exited about that. Tickets for the event will come available in due time through the WDNA website. After the opening night the exhibition can be viewed in the gallery during regular business hours. Admission is free. WDNA Jazz Gallery is located at 2921 Coral Way, Miami, FL 33145.

The exhibition and concert were initiated by Mr. Howard Duperly, Sales and Marketing Manager at WDNA. Mr. Duperly (under the moniker Flagga) also hosts a radio program on Saturday afternoons called The Reggae Ride. With this I'll put in a request for him to play Institution by Burning Spear on May 25th, just hours before the opening. The song is featured at #86 in the Top 100 2102.

Burning Spear
11" x 8.5", 2013
watercolor, pen on paper

MOM

MOM
11" x 8.5", 2013
watercolor, pen on paper

I do not know the identity of the woman behind the MOM moniker. MOM is a performance artist, doing the art circuit around the Sacramento area. I came across MOM through the Believer 2012 Music Issue, devoted last year to music only released on cassette format. MOM's performances are characterized by singing through voice altering electronics on top of recorded tapes, mostly vintage rock and roll music or period spoken word recordings. MOM is masked, wears Mickey Mouse ears, and—on all six videos available on YouTube—dressed in a short red dress. While her face is covered she flashes her buttocks every time she bends over, jumps, or lifts her dress, all while handling several props (hamburgers are a favorite) in a manner you might come to expect from contemporary performance art (like rubbing a hamburger in someone's face). The track on the Believer compilation is called Boner Party (Tonite), it features a sound recording of Annette Fulcinella's Beach Party. I don't know if MOM is an acronym for something, or if it refers simply to mother. I don't know if MOM's a mother. The performances certainly address feminist and gender topics. I know I'm a little early but... Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers. Love you MOM!

33 ⅓

Yoko Ono
11" x 8.5", 2013
watercolor on paper

John Cage
11" x 8.5", 2013
watercolor, pen on paper

33 ⅓ is the title of a composition by John Cage. It's not a composition in the traditional sense of composition, it's in fact more of a conceptual art piece than it is a musical composition. In it are 12 turntables that are to be played simultaneously. The composition involves audience participation. The audience is the performer of the piece. 33 ⅓ refers to the speed in which records are to be played on the turntables, the turntables are set to 33 ⅓ rpm. In 2012, the 100th anniversary of John Cage's birth, I was one of the performers in an installation of the piece at the Bob Rauschenberg Gallery at Edison State College in Fort Myers. The piece is right up my alley: As the source material for the composition "guest curators" were invited to submit 10 records of their choice, a sort of top 10 of their favorite records. These guest curators included David Byrne, Lee Ranaldo, Yoko Ono, Mike Kelley, Iggy Pop, Pauline Oliveros, Meredith Monk, John Baldessari, Vito Acconci, Joan la Barbara, James Rosenquist, Matthew Barney, William Wegman, Ed Ruscha, Richie Ramone, Brian Ferry, Blixa Bargeld, and Jack White, indeed a who's who of art art and music. David Byrne's selection consisted of all spoken word recordings, while Yoko Ono selected only records involving herself, her late husband John Lennon, and her son Sean Ono Lennon. I had a blast browsing through the records of these luminaries and playing out my heart's content. When it was all said and done, the turntables silenced, the piece finished (for the day), I made a top 10 of the records I played that night. Air Male by Yoko Ono and the Plastic One Band was the number one on my list. 

Le Chanson

Catherine Lara
11" x 8.5", 2013
watercolor, pen on paper

Edith Piaf
11" x 8.5", 2013
watercolor, pen on paper

 The best thing about shopping for records in thrift stores is when you come upon a specific mini collection from a specific individual. These mini collections are often quite intriguing and when I'm intrigued enough about a previous owner I like to buy all the records that were dumped at this thrift store. I live for the days that I find records from an unusual (in terms of rarity of record finds) country all together in one store. Once I bought a whole box filled up with Latvian records and another time I bought 15 Philippine records in one haul. Sometimes you'll find records of a certain topic or genre, and another time the type of labeling will give away that the records once belonged to one collection. The collections are most interesting to me if it concerns somewhat obscure records, a different set of records than those that anyone could have. I didn't think anything of it when I came upon two Chris Williamson records yesterday (one I already had—I only like it so-so), but when more women-only records from the 1970s showed up my mind became focused. It's not the first time I've encountered a feminist thrift-store record dumping but this was yet more specific. Studying the sleeves of records by Teresa Trull and Jade & Sarsaparilla it became clear that I was dealing with a collection that once belonged to a lesbian woman (or couple). I went back through the rows of records I had already been through to find all those LPs that probably came from this anonymous collector. I ended up with 7 records, including two by Edith Piaf that I suspect belonged to the same owner. While I liked the Theresa Trull a lot the two Edith Piaf records was where it's at for me. There's nothing unusual or rare about the LP Les plus grands succès with music of Edith Piaf. Every single song on it I already had on one of my other Piaf records, it was even my third or even fourth copy, or version for some songs on this "greatest hits". The biggest ones are all on it: there's La Vie en Rose, Non, Je ne Regrette Rien, Milord, Les Trois Cloches, and so on. I liked the cover image, green stickers were half off at the Goodwill so I only had to pay 50 cents, and it has been a while since listened to Piaf, so I took it home. And when I played it after all these years since hearing all these songs, I was stunned because of how beautiful these recordings really are. So intense, so timeless, so beautiful. If you're like me and you haven't heard the songs of Edith Piaf for a few years, I recommend to dig into your vinyl collection, go to the French chanson section (or to the the letter P, or to wherever you may have filed Piaf under), and play your Piaf records again. I guarantee you won't be disappointed. If by any chance, you're one of the few people who doesn't have a copy of the 1950 recording of Hymne l'Amour you can listen to it by clicking this link and get in the mood. 

What could or maybe even should have been part of that collection by the lesbian couple is an album by Catherine Lara. I hate to comment on a person's sexuality (it is none of my business), but my couple in question would have eaten this up. Both Piaf (Hymne l'Amour) and Lara are represented in this Top 100. The Catherine Lara song L'Hiver was included on a mixed tape presented by Lightactivity of the fabulous blog Toys and Techniques.

Hungary, Hungary

Csango women's group
11" x 8.5", 2013
watercolor, pen on paper

I still owe a bunch more watercolors before I can completely wrap up the 2012 edition of the Top 100. The album Hungarian Folk Music was already represented by a Transylvanian Rom group but there are two more tunes that belong to that collection. The first one is a solo female voice called A fényes nap immán elnyugodott. It is an evening song of the so called Csango people of Hungarian (Magyar) ethnicity living in what is now Moldavia. The second one is a children's song. You can listen to it via the blog Musical Thrift Store Treasures. The following text is what I had to say about it when I published Children's Songs in November of 2011.

Often a children's song or two are included in such albums that seek to give an overview of the musical traditions of a certain cultural or geographical group.  I have gathered quite a few but to say I'm collecting is an overstatement, they're simply included in some of the records I collect. My interest in these children's songs is fairly new. I'm attracted to the uncomplicated spontaneous nature of these songs. They're happy songs, playful songs, free from the burdens of the hardness and sadness of life, complex psychological identities, and sexual rejection. I was never interested in their songs, their aesthetic, or their play, but something changed. I think my interest started with teaching drawing and painting to children this past summer, I had never done this before, and never thought I would like it, but I did.
—It has recently been discovered that some of the iconic ancient cave paintings have been done by small children. In the recently discovered Rouffignac  caves in the Dordogne, the most prolific artist was a five year old girl. Learning about this fact impacted my worldview and my attitude of how I view children.

The LP Hungarian Folk Music contains a really nice children’s song. it is called Haj szén'alja, szén'alja which translates to Ah, bundle of hay, bundle of hay. The LP Hungarian Folk Music (not to be confused with Bartok's better known Folk Music of Hungary) was last year's best thrift store record find. The number 194 taped in the top left corner on the record indicates that it once belonged to a collection. I bought 20 records from that collection in one day, the numbers ranging between 185 and 232. All records are from Eastern Europe with a majority coming from Poland. I assume the collection once belonged to an immigrant from Poland. I really should revisit that thrift store to see if other numbers from the collection have been released.

Hungarian girls' group

8.5" x 11"

watercolor on paper, 2013