Spécial Fête de la musique
Ibrahim Malouf
For this 6th episode of Livestreams and on the occasion of the Fête de la Musique, Ibrahim Maalouf was live from his studio, accompanied by his faithful companion the guitarist François Delporte! «Franco-Lebanese trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf is also a composer best known for film scores, and an arranger, producer and teacher of improvisation and trumpet. He has achieved success in a wide range of genres, and counts jazz, oriental music and rock among his diverse sources of inspiration. In 2017, he received the César Award for Best Original Music for the film In the Forests of Siberia. His father is trumpeter Nassim Maalouf and his mother is pianist Nada Maalouf. His uncle is the writer Amin Maalouf and his grandfather was the journalist, poet, and musicologist Rushdi Maalouf.» (Wikipedia)
Self-published, June 2020
Angels and Demons at Play
Sun Ra Arkestra
Saxophone player Marshall Allen is the current leader of the Arkestra, a jazz collective founded by Sun Ra in the 1950s. Le Sony’r Ra (born Herman Poole Blount, May 22, 1914 – May 30, 1993), better known as Sun Ra, was an American jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, and poet known for his experimental music, cosmic philosophy, prolific output, and theatrical performances. Allen assisted in producing, mixing, and engineering of their new album Swirling, which the group recorded in Philadelphia with Jim Hamilton. The band’s longtime baritone sax player and manager Danny Ray Thompson, who died in March at age 72, also appears on Swirling. The album will only be out in October but this is a taste that proves that Sun Ra’s cosmic jazz lives on. (Pitchfork and Wikipedia)
Strut, July 2020
since i was young
Wrabel featuring Kesha
L.A. singer-songwriter Wrabel has asked Kesha, a frequent partner in crime, to sing on this fabulous nostalgic summer hit. «In the standalone single, Wrabel tells the story of how he became the person he is today, starting from his first cigarette at 16, ‘trying to impress some guy or some girl.’ Kesha sings backup on the song’s chorus. The two friends worked together on multiple tracks featured on Kesha’s 2017 album Rainbow and her latest LP, High Road, released this past January. Wrabel released the extended play One of Those Happy People in September 2019.» (Rolling Stone) Stephen Wrabel (born 1989) went from being a back-stage writer to being one of pop’s unsung talents. His songwriting credits include releases by Pink, Kesha, Louis the Child, Kygo, Backstreet Boys or Ruel.
Pulse, July 2020
Burnt Umber
Brian and Roger Eno
On their new album Mixing Colours, Brian and younger brother Roger, also a well-known figure in ambient music, «invite listeners to immerse themselves in the infinite space and calmness of their tonal meditations. Like good wine, the material on the album grew over many years. he reciprocal creative process for Mixing Colours started back in 2005 with Roger recording individual synthesizer compositions and fragments of songs he then sent to Brian, who digitally decomposed his brother’s ideas and arranged them in new ways for giving each one its individual sound world.» “The idea for a full album emerged as the number of pieces kept increasing, and the results kept being interesting. It’s something that neither of us could have arrived at alone,» says Roger recapitulating the album’s birth. (Pop Matters)
Deutsche Grammophon, July 2020
ShadowDance
Josh Rice
My old friend Josh Rice has written a couple of new songs recently. We go back to the early seventies, when we first met at a mutual friend’s house. He was self-possessed and good looking, had come up to Ottawa from New York via Philly, and he played a mean guitar in a band called Fat Fox and the Dirty Sox, accompanied by band member Michael Ziegler and a basist Bobby Finkle. Theirs was a different kind of music then, younger, lighter, less accomplished than Shadow Dance which owes its great graphics and funny storyline to Josh’s daughter Tara Rice. Acid Rock and R&B have always held a big part of Josh’s musical sway, and he was always a great singer whose voice has gained amazing power with age. His ironic play with stereotypes gives the lyrics additional appeal. (sgs)
Self-published, July 2020