Of Cromagnon man and Kalahari healers

Marjorie Shostak and Nisa

In May of last year I wrote how Margaret de Wys successfully sought the help of an Ecuadorian shaman to heal and recover from breast cancer. It's a romantic idea that healers from indigenous communities have a certain knowledge lacking in the industrialized world. There's some truth in it (it seems to me) that traditional healers know things about the properties of obscure plants and the often mysterious workings of the human body, that are unknown to the western scientific world. But let's not forget that the science of the western world has advanced to such a degree that healing of diseases, especially those of the industrial world, such as cancer, has a very good success rate, perhaps as good, or better, than traditional methods. The American anthropologist Marjorie Shostak, a decade before de Wys, and on different continent, was not as lucky. Shostak sought the help from her friend Nisa, a !Kung San woman from Botswana. Nisa, in 1970, had been the subject of a book by Shostak: Nisa, the Life and Words of a !Kung Woman. [Harvard University Press, 1981] The book gained importance and became a standard of anthropological literature. Sound recordings made during her three year stay among the !Kung appeared on two discs by the Folkways label. The record Instrumental Music of the Kalahari San appeared in 1982. Like last year the tune Sitengena with one man's voice is listed in the top 100. Read here about the recording.

Cromagnon: Austin Grasmere; Brian Elliot; Sal Salgado

The two colors behind Shostak and Nisa are olive green and olive brown, hardly to be called random. The first time I used the Random Color Generator at randomwordgenerator.com a month ago I these three colors behind three members of the 60s garage band Cromagnon. I didn't write down the names of colors then but they do come up with wonderful (but not truly random) colors. I learned about this obscure band from New York City when I was looking into the ESP label that is the home of many free jazz musicians I'm interested in. ESP refers to the language and not psychology. It was founded in 1963 to showcase esperanto-based music, but after its only second release, a disc by Albert Ayler (Spritual Unity, 1965) the label focused on free jazz and other experimental music. The song Caledonia from the album Orgasm of 1969 (later reissued as Cave Rock) is a real tour de force heavy metal song with bagpipes prominently heard with fuzz guitar, bass and drum. Taped sound effects also feature on the recording. More music from ESP will feature in this year's 100 as well as another recording of the !Kung San of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana.

 

The Top 100 2022

100 Faces from the Top 100 2022, oil on canvas, 24x36" 

The above painting is still in progress. The process of it is establishing the concept for the series of a 100 paintings for the Top 100 2022. The series, like last year, will be double portraits, but the focus will not be on difference but on equality, or similarity, or familiarity. Different too will be that the 100 paintings will not follow the list by the letter. While the list is a ranking of 100 songs, the paintings will not be depending on the rankings. This will give me greater flexibility in my choices of who to paint. The one aspect of following the list I grew tired of last year was that I had to paint certain individuals over and over again. Last year I painted six portraits of Hugo Zemp for example. Even though there are already several duplicate performers in this year's list (that is not even half way compiled), the above painting has no duplicates, yet every song is represented and there are already more than 60 people portrayed (out of a list of 40 songs). The following 10 details are likely to be repeated in the series that will become The Top 100 2022.

Austin Grasmere and Brian Elliot of Cromagnon

The two members of Cromagnon were painted side by side. The song Caledonia is nothing short of spectacular. Experimental garage rock featuring a bagpipe. It has it all. I had never heard of the band but was introduced to them via the No Wave Facebook group. Their record Orgasm (later reissued as Cave Rock) was produced for the New York based ESP records. The 'E' in ESP stands for 'Esperanto'. The label was founded with the intention of releasing recording with lyrics in Esperanto.

Rundi women performing Ubuhuha

One of my favorite tracks from the treasured LP Burundi:Musique Traditionelles is back in the list this year. For earlier paintings (and written commentaries) click on this link.

Klaudia Schiff and Marlene Marder of LiLiPUT

A return after about 15 years to the list for the Swiss post-punk band LiLiPUT. This time not with their high scoring Eisiger Wind, but with the equally exciting single Split. LiLiPUT used to be called Kleenex but had to change their band's name because of the threat of legal action by the company who used Kleenex as a brand name.

Swedish music anthropologists Ake Egevad and Cajsa Lund

The record Musica Sveciae: Fornnordiska Klanger means a lot to me as I'm interested in prehistoric art and the origin of music. Professor Cajsa Lund, who produced the record, and her collaborator Äke Egevad are professionals who research bot interests and use archaeological evidence to reconstruct sounds from the prehistoric era. Two tracks from the album are listed in the top 100: the sound of a bull-roarer and a performance on the Kantflöjter (flute).

Albert Ayler and Sunny Murray

Sunny Murray is the percussionist on Spiritual Unity, an album by Albert Ayler from 1965. Gary Peacock (not depicted) is the third member of the trio. Ghosts, First Variation is the opening track that also features in my continued top 100, which records and adds points for a recording going all the way back to 1983, the year I started the Top 100.