Organ music

 If you google “organ”, there are more hits on the illicit market for harvesting body parts than on the sweet and swelling sound of a well-played organ. A deeper dive, however, brings one to the musical core of the matter, though the White European point of view prevails with frequent mentions the likes of Johann Sebastian Bach and concert organist E. Power Biggs. Sliding past those relevant references, we finally land on jazz as a most fertile ground for keyboard improvisers. And just about every other music in the world as it has been practiced since the mid-20th century (electronically speaking) – the organ fits anywhere you want it. I don’t pretend to be a purist in this week’s Al compás del mundo playlist, and there may well be an electric piano or two sneaking into the mix. Sometimes it’s hard to discern between the two, but the pleasure principle was my ultimate criteria and let any (unimportant) distinctions be damned! [continued below]

Al compás del mundo - programa #160, 12-26-24, organ music run list

 01 Abdou el-Omari - Nakhil (Morocco)

02 Hailu Mergia - Ambasel (Ethiopia)

03 Question Mark and the Mysterians - 96 Tears (USA)

04 John Patton - Pig Foots (USA)

05 Tiny Step Southside Trio - Beachball (Japan)

06 Dave “Baby” Cortez - The Happy Organ (USA)

07 Dengue Fever - Late Checkout at the Cedarwood Inn (Thailand and USA)

08 Leila Sharipova - Caravan Afghan song (Uzbekistan)

09 Moses Tyson - Near the Cross (USA)

10 Baby-Face Willette - Swingin' at Sugar Ray's (USA)

11 Las Románticas de Juan Torres y Su Órgano Melódico - Mamy Blue (Mexico)

12 Saviour Bee - Piano Seben Improvisation (Africa)

13 James Booker - Smacksie (USA)

14 Ubon Pattana with Surin Paksiri - Lam Sarawan (Thailand)

15 Abdul Waheed - Tu rah naward e shauq hai sazina (Pakistan)

16 Samuel Freiburghaus and Thilo Muster - Suita Romanesca Hora Lui Marian (Switzerland)

 

[continued....] We get jazz, of course, from the USA as well as delicious morsels and moments of bliss from all over the world. Abdou el-Omari and Hailu Mergia are two of those, weaving a mysterious, almost stereotypical sound (to Western ears) speaking of “exotic” far-away places, as they call up traditional motifs on non-traditional instruments. And speaking of “mysterious”, I couldn’t ignore the requirement of following with Mr. Question Mark and his gang. We’re also to be entertained by a Japanese trio performing surf music; a Mexican group playing a French pop hit from the ‘70s; the deliriously happy organ of Dave “Baby” Cortez; Moses Tyson fomenting a near riot at times as he invokes the name of the Lord with rollicking arpeggios; the curiously named Saviour Bee, another Christian preacher who finds liberation and joy in the keys of his organ (he refuses to reveal just where in Africa he hails from, though his “seben” style of music sounds very Congolese); from Thailand, an old-school vocal approach in a song utilizing both the electric organ and what might be called a mouth organ, the bamboo pipe “khaen”. Finishing off an hour’s worth of (vaguely) related musical creations, we get a pretty little Romanian ditty by a couple of Swiss misters, Muster and Freiburghaus. After all, mustn’t leave Europe out of the loop. Seems to me they invented the organ!

~~v~~