Jazz vocals

 

Al compás del mundo - programa #167, 2-13-25, jazz vocals

 

01 World Saxophone Quartet with Fontella Bass - Suffering with the Blues

02 Charles Mingus - Weird Nightmare

03 Courtney Pine - I've Known Rivers

04 Don Was & the Pan-Detroit Ensemble - I Ain't Got Nothing

05 Roland Kirk - Baby Let Me Shake Your Tree

06 Gary Bartz NTU Troop - Uhuru Sassa

07 Gil Scott-Heron - The Prisoner

08 The Pharaohs - Freedom Road

09 Pierre Dorge & New Jungle Orchestra - Bobo Sanneh

 

For the summary of this week’s program on Al compás del mundo radio, I’m going to let the song lyrics and performers’ backgrounds tell their own story. First off, I have to admit I’m not a big fan of jazz with vocals. Maybe it’s all the cutesy and torch-y songs or the 50th recorded version of Blue Moon and umpteen other jazz standards from “the great American songbook.” As a rule, they don’t get under my skin. But that’s not to say there is nothing redeeming (to my ears) in lyrics both plaintive and sincere. This playlist begins with famed R&B singer, Fontella Bass, joining the World Saxophone Quartet and lamenting that “Somewhere, somehow, some time, some place, I must have been wrong, cuz now I’m suffering with the blues.” Mingus’s ‘Weird Nightmare’ follows and the singer bewails the “nightmare that haunts her every dream” (must be a broken heart) while the soundtrack paints an appropriate disturbing scene of tortured insomnia. We go back to 1921 for the next verses from illustrious African American poet Langston Hughes, actually paraphrased by composer Gary Bartz as ‘I’ve Known Rivers’ and performed here by Courtney Pine. Written during the great migration to the North by literally millions of his people, Hughes saw rivers as life-nurturing connections to places beyond. On a whole other level, vocalist Steffanie Christi’an leads the Don Was & Pan-Detroit Ensemble giving advice to a lovelorn friend “...just grab your dancing shoes and we’ll go lose them blues. Cuz I ain’t got nothing but time.” Maybe somewhere out on the town, they might run into Roland Kirk. Look out! He’s blind, you know. Of course, that doesn’t affect his affinity for the scent of a woman. And when he’s motivated, he’s been known to slyly “beg” for a chance to climb up into her branches: “I don’t give a damn how many squirrels got their nuts out of the tree...in the last few months. Baby, let me shake your tree.” Previously mentioned Gary Bartz next presents a call for Afro-American unity during the time of the Vietnam war and racial sruggles in ‘Uhuru Sassa’, from the Swahili ‘freedom now’: “Hell no, I won’t fight your filthy battles no more...I’ve got some battles of my own to fight for.” Once again shifting from a universal theme to an individual struggle, Gil Scott-Heron (with gorgeous piano backing by co-writer Brian Jackson) sees himself as “The Prisoner” of society, the justice system, an unhappy marriage, an identity crisis...”Here I am, after so many years, hounded by hatred and trapped by fear.” Admittedly, there’s been plentiful reasons for singing the blues in the playlist entries up till now, and most all of the tunes reflect that solemnity in their pace. So we’re going to finish up with two bouncy, uplifting cuts. First, The Pharaohs, straddling the line between R&B and jazz insist “I’m free at last.” and “I don’t have to worry no more.” (would that this were wholly true!) Nothing wrong with a dose of optimism, though. And while I am unable to translate the Ghanaian singer’s lyrics for Danish bandleader Pierre Dorge & New Jungle Orchestra, I’m confident they finish up this program speaking of positivity and joyfulness.