MC Solaar: ” Victime de la Mode” (2006)
Aside from jazz or classical music, what five CDs or compilations would I take along to listen to on a Desert Island? Here it gets quirky.
- First, I’d take the French rapper/hiphopper MC Solaar, probably Prose Combat (1994), although the two-pack Le Tour de la Question (2006) has more music and all the energy of a live concert. An alternative would be the 1994 debut album of Michael Franti’s Spearhead, Home.
Second would be Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim (1967), with Claus Ogerman as arranger and conductor. It’s not an even album but the best cuts on it are sublime and on a desert island, listening to Sinatra roll out “Dindi” or “Change Partners” would make my evening. The best Jobim album, though, is Ao Vivo: Tom Canta Vinicius ( recorded in 1990 and released in 2001). Dori Caymi and Paula Morelenbaum sing along with Tom and Paula’s husband Jacques plays cello.
- I have to have something by R. L. Burnside, but the question is which album. Probably his last, A Bothered Mind (2004), with Lyrics Born and Kid Rock rapping alongside the legendary Delta blues singer. Purists will object to Burnside’s embracing hip hop but hey, it’s exciting music and even as an old geezer, Burnside still had it. Furthermore, the recording mixes electrified music with straight old style acoustic. An alternative? Chicago blues legend Buddy Guy: Sweet Tea (2001), to my mind one of the best recordings Guy ever made.
In fourth place, The Chambers Brothers: The Time Has Come (1967), offering the Chambers Brothers’ exciting, deeply musical mix of soul, r and b, and rock. The 60s pseudo-psychedelic title song is flabby and too long and half the remaining cuts are remakes of pop hits, but the songs that are left are killers: “All Strung Out Over You,” “People Get Ready,” “I Can’t Stand It,” In the Midnight Hour,” and “Up Town.” With cuts like that, I can tolerate their soupy version of Burt Bacharach’s “What the World Needs Now (Is Love).” In their prime, the Chambers Brothers combined gospel and rock better than any group around.- The Three Pickers (2003) was a live concert reunion of the three best remaining Appalachian and blue grass musicians: guitarist-vocalist Doc Watson, banjoist supreme Earl Scruggs and mandolinist Ricky Skaggs. They play together, play separately, and as a bonus, Alison Krauss joins them on a few cuts to sing and play fiddle. The musicians’ love for their music and respect for each other are apparent throughout and the recording includes loving banter as well as great playing.
What’s missing on the list? My three favorite rock bands: The Band, the Talking Heads, Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band. Flatt and Scruggs. The good side of the Santana-Miles (Carlos and Buddy) New Years’ Eve concert in 1970. Etta James’s sessions at Muscle Shoals. The Buena Vista Social Club, or, if not all of them, its pianist, Ruben Gonzales, or Ibrahim Ferrer and Omara Portuondo in duet on “Silence.” Lyle Lovett. Nanci Griffith. X.
This list was hard!
ADDITIONAL LISTENING
R. L. Burnside: “Shake ‘Em All Down,” with Kid Rock (2004)
The Chambers Brothers: “In the Midnight Hour” (1967)
Etta James, “My Mother-in-Law” (1967-68)
MUSIC & ME 